


Somewhere Only We Know

by HowToKillAMockingbird



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Kidnapping, Tattoo Origin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-01
Updated: 2016-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-27 07:02:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 62,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6274498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HowToKillAMockingbird/pseuds/HowToKillAMockingbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where Harry and Liam are both archaeology students who win much sought after seats to a special archaeology conference attended by the elites of the archaeological world.</p>
<p>After being tasked to provide fresh eyes in the deciphering of the artefacts and findings of a recent archaeological dig led by a Profession Kingston, they somehow stumble upon the secret to the location of a long lost ancient treasure.</p>
<p>When certain unscrupulous individuals get a whiff of their discovery, they and their friends become the target of a powerful group of people who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the treasure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2016 1D Big Bang based on some of the boys 'treasure map' tattoos.  
> Thanks to the talented Shyla who not only did the awesome art for the story but also went out of her way to actually help beta the story. Can't thank you enough!
> 
> I've inserted her artwork within the story so you can't miss it and whilst you're at it, check out the masterpost and all the other art on her tumblr at http://neon--diamonds.tumblr.com/.

Somewhere in Egypt - 6 months earlier

“Are you sure?” the man asked as he looked at the boy who was crumpled in grief against the hospital wall.

“Trust me. His mother was his only family. Nobody will come looking for him. He’s not my responsibility and I’m certainly not paying for his ticket back. He’s all yours.”

The man looked again at the boy, more of a young man really. He was a bit on the skinny side but he seemed fit and healthy. Perfect, he thought as he took out a wad of cash. “Ok. I’ll take him,” he said with a smirk as he handed over the cash. “It’s a pleasure doing business with you.”

The other guy discreetly pocketed the cash and walked over to the boy. “Come on, kid” he said as he put his hands on the boy’s shoulder.

“Don’t touch me. Don’t bloody touch me,” the boy said spitting at him in anger. “This is your fault! It’s all your fault! We wouldn’t even be here, if it wasn’t for you!!” he said, bursting into a fresh rack of sobs as he punched the hospital wall in anger.

“Now don’t you dare cause a scene.” The guy said through gritted teeth as he grabbed the boy’s arms. “I offered your mother, and her alone, an invite to join me here for a little getaway and she made the decision all on her own, okay? And I certainly wasn’t the one that was drunk driving the other car that crash into her so don’t you put this on me," he said harshly dragging the boy along. “Now you need to follow these gentlemen. They’ll bring you where you need to go.”

“What? NOO!  I’m staying!”

“Give it up kid. She’s not coming back. You can’t stay here and I certainly didn’t sign up to take care of you," the guy said, shrugging as the boy looked up at him through angry tears.

“Just go with them. They’ll probably bring you to the British consulate or something and see about getting you home," he lied. “I’ve given them your passport, so don’t kick up a fuss and just go, they’ll take care of you.”

Southampton Port – Present Day

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Harry mumbled as he looked up at the huge cruise ship in front of them. “Spending three whole weeks of our summer holidays on bloody seminars, workshops and conferences. I mean who even voluntarily signs up for these things?” Harry said, glaring at Liam.

“It’s not gonna be so bad, Harry.” Liam said putting their luggage down and glancing up to the ship in front of them.  “It’s a pretty amazing opportunity if you think about it. You might even enjoy it if you give it a chance.”

Harry put his sunglasses on and gave a heavy dramatic sigh as he walked ahead of Liam.

They stopped right before the entrance of the cruise to say goodbye to their parents who had insisted on sending off the boys despite their protest.

“Pretty sure we’re the only conference members being sent off by their parents,” Harry said as he saw a group of middle aged men make their way on to the ship.

“Oh shush,” Anne said, hand reaching to brush aside Harry’s bangs from his eyes.

“Mooom!" Harry said, wide eyed as he looked around discreetly hoping that nobody saw that, as Liam looked on sniggering.

“I’m proud of you boys. You earned that seat in the conference and I’m sure you’ll have a brilliant time," she said turning to Liam to give him a hug.

“Look out for your brother, Liam. Make sure he doesn’t get into too much trouble.”

“Okay Mum,” Liam smiled as he gave his mum a kiss on the cheek.

“And you, young man, behave.” Their mother turned to the younger of her two sons and leaning in she whispered “And look after your brother for me, make sure he at least tries to have a little bit of fun.”

“Mum, he’s gonna be having the time of his life with all these boring stuffy academicians, it’s me that’s gonna be miserable.” Harry grumbled, hugging his mum.

“No you won’t and stop being such a drama queen. Just look out for one another, okay?” Anne said again softly.

 “Yeah ok.” He relented smirking down at her. “I promise. We’ll see you and Dad in three weeks,” he said as he grabbed his luggage away from Liam.

Giving a final kiss and wave to their parents Harry and Liam made their way into the ship that was to be their home for the next three weeks.

It certainly was no holiday cruise for the twosome. Both were archaeology students at Durham U and they were offered the study cruise after submitting a joint paper on Egyptian Archaeology and deciphering the history behind its ancient artifacts. They had a busy agenda with talks and seminars by renowned archaeologists from all over the world and it really was an amazing opportunity to meet and hear the experience of experts in the archaeology world. At 19, and being about less than a year apart, they both were clearly the youngest of the group of archaeology conference members.

The brothers made their way to the registration counter when Harry suddenly stopped and grabbed Liam’s arm. “Whoa, what does that say?” Harry said pointing to a big banner hung on top of the registration counter. “Please tell me I’m not seeing things.”

Liam pushed down his sunglasses and looked up. “Registration for over 18 national volleyball holiday/training camp,” he read.

“No way!! No freaking way!!!!” Harry said as he turned to grab Liam’s shoulders. “Three whole weeks on a cruise ship with the over 18 national volleyball players?? You have got to be kidding me!” Harry said in gleeful amazement.

“Well I guess the ship’s too big to fit in just the one conference,” Liam said with a shrug. 

Harry turned and planted a big sloppy kiss to his forehead. “I Love you. Have I told you I Love you?! Because I do,” Harry said as he grabbed his bags and hurried to the registration counter.

“Not since last year when I got us front row tickets to Coldplay,” Liam said in a mock scowl as he followed after Harry.

***

“Good morning! Are you here under a group or as an independent?” A young man at the registration counter asked cheerily.

“Hi!” Harry said with a wide smile. “We’re here for the volleyball camp” he continued cheekily as Liam slapped him in the arm.

“We’re here for the archaeology conference,” Liam said shaking his head and giving the man an apologetic look.

 “Really?” The young man asked looking at them in surprise. “Would never have thought. Although, I kinda believe the first one.” He snickered clearly amused.  “You guys seem pretty young compared to everyone else that have registered so far."

“I know, right? What 20 year old in their right mind would choose to spend their precious first few weeks of summer holidays amidst middle aged academicians and talking about, well, academics?!” Harry said incredulous as he turned to Liam.

“You could have said no,” Liam mumbled.

 “You know Mom would have insisted. I’ll just suffer through this like the awesome brother that I am,” he sighed dramatically as he put his arms around Liam, who gave an eye roll as he saw that Harry’s attention was caught by a group of really tall volleyball players headed over to the registration counter next to them.

 “All right then lads," the young man said as he tried to stifle a laugh.  “Just tell me your names and I’ll get you your detailed agenda and information kit for the rest of the cruise and assign you your room, okay?”

Both Harry and Liam obliged and gave them their names and their tickets for the cruise.

“Great!”  The young man said after keying in the details in the ship’s system.

“So Harry and Liam, welcome to the Solaris cruise!” he said as he handed over some pamphlets and documents. “These are your conference agenda and information kit plus a printed map and lay out of the ship. It’s pretty big.”

“Thanks. Um, how do we get to the rooms?” Liam asked as he looked at the lay out of the ship in confusion.

“Oh," the pleasant young man said as he looked around for a bell boy to help the boys but none were around.

“Well you can just come with me and I’ll show you to your room. I’m Louis” he said with a grin, extending his hand in greeting.

***

“So this is where dinner will be served which is right next to the conference room. The level above has been converted to a mini museum of archaeological artifacts which will open to the public in about a week. I don’t know much about archaeology but I heard a lot of museums from all over the world were kind enough to loan some of their prized artifacts specifically for this cruise and conference,” Louis said as he took the boys for the tour of the ship.

“How awesome is that?” Liam said to Harry practically buzzing. “Can’t wait to see the artifacts  up close and personal rather than just pictures on the internet or in a book. Is there a list of the items that will be on display?” Liam asked turning to Louis.

“I don’t know, I’ll have a look and get back to you on that,” Louis said smiling, clearly amused at Liam’s enthusiasm.

“Ok, here is your room. If you need anything, just dial 0 for reception and 1 for room service.” Louis said as he opened the door to the room Harry and Liam would be sharing for the next three weeks.

“They’re actually pretty comfy,” Louis said as he helped them with their luggage. “There’s a balcony and even a flat screen TV and a DVD," Louis said grinning. “We just refurbished."

“Cool," Harry said as he walked into the room. “Dibs on the bed near the window,” he said plonking himself on it before Liam could say anything. “Ooh, do we have satellite TV? There’s an England match later that I wanna see.”

 “The one against Barca?” Louis asked.

“Yeah, please tell me we get the channel,” Harry asked.

“Well unless they show it on normal TV then unfortunately not. We don’t get satellite TV. Sorry,"  Louis said apologetically. “BUT, I know someone who could maybe help you guys out if you wanna see the game live. I’m sure I can make special arrangement for you if you don’t mind watching it with me and a friend.”

 “Seriously?” Harry said excitedly. “'Cause that would be awesome! Don’t think we could manage three whole weeks without satellite channels.”

“I know what you mean,” Louis said laughing. “Don’t think I would survive this cruise without it either. Look, see this layout here?” Louis said pointing to the map of the ship. “Come to level 1 right here and turn left and walk straight until you reach the end and there’s a corner room there that you won’t miss. Just come there before match time and we can watch it together, yeah.” He said handing each a key card to their room as he headed out the room. “Enjoy the cruise lads!”

***

It was the first and only session for the day and Harry and Liam were listening to an introductory talk on the most current and recent archaeological findings by Professor Kingston. As much as Harry complained about the whole work conference thing during summer holidays, he did honestly find them pretty darn interesting although he would never openly admit it to Liam, of course.

The paper that they submitted was after all a joint paper and even Harry knew that it was indeed a good paper. Him and Liam worked well together. Liam was the creative thinker, the one who thought outside the box, and Harry was the facts man, the one who backed up all of the weird theories Liam would come up with, with facts and figures that made those theories feasible and difficult to dispute.

The Professor was talking about the recent discovery of another pyramid in Egypt which was thought to be the tomb of King Imhotep, widely known in the history books as the richest and longest reigning sovereign to ever rule Egypt. His reign expanded more than nine decades which was incredible to say the least, considering the life expectancy of the average person at the time.

The tomb however was bare of any gold and riches except for one sceptre buried with the remains, which carried the crest of the Imhotep Kingdom.

The Professor went on to say that disappointingly, however, after some samples and tests were done, it was discovered that there was no way that the remains were that of the King himself and it was most likely that the tomb was that of another royal, or even a smartly planted ploy to make it look like the tomb of King Imhotep so as to divert interest away from the real tomb that would have contained the gold and riches that he most certainly would have been buried in.

Harry glanced over at Liam, who was giving his full attention to the talk and he couldn’t help but smile. Liam was such a nerd and whilst Liam unabashedly geeks out and gets excited about practically everything, Harry at least tries to be a little bit cool about it. But even he was finding it hard to contain his interest in this particular topic especially seeing as the Professor giving the talk was actually the person who was in charge of the excavation. It really was an amazing opportunity to be amongst the elite of the profession and any young aspiring archaeologists would have killed to be in the position they were in.

The minute the session ended a bevy of people made their way to the Professor with a myriad of follow up questions about the talk he had just given but surprisingly, the Professor excused himself and instead made his way to the two boys.

“Well you must be the brothers that submitted the paper on deciphering ancient Egyptian artifacts,” he said not so much as a question, as Liam and Harry nodded at a loss for words. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you boys,” the Professor said, extending his hand.

“Wow, um thank you.” Liam said as he took the extended hand in greeting, followed suit by Harry.

“It’s a real pleasure to meet you, Sir. I’m Harry and this is my brother Liam.” Harry said as he noticed Liam was finding it difficult to find the right words to speak.

 “I read your paper and I have to say I was very impressed. You boys really deserved your seats in this conference. I loved how you didn’t confine yourselves to thinking inside a box and yet gave sound reasoning behind some of the conclusions you made.”

Harry stole a quick glance at Liam to see his reaction and swallowed a chuckle because, yup, sure enough, he looked like he was about to pee himself.

“Thank you Sir, we really appreciate it,” Harry said earnestly turning back to the Professor just as someone came over to call him away.

“Hold on Damian, I’ll be there in a minute,” the Professor said as he turned back to the brothers. “Listen boys, I’ve actually written a full report of the excavation I was talking about, together with all the findings. It hasn’t been published yet but before I come up with my final conclusion on the findings, I was wondering if you boys could take a look at it just to see it with fresh eyes. “

“Are you serious?” the boys croaked out in unison. 

“Dead serious,” the professor said with a laugh. “You know, I’ve been in this business a long time. Way before you boys were even born and one thing I’ve learnt is that you have to always keep an open mind and be receptive to other possibilities and ideas. I feel that I’ve been on this too long and too closely that I fear my objectivity may have been compromised a bit.”

Liam and Harry looked at each other in disbelief. 

“Are you sure about this Professor?” the guy that had come to get the Professor interjected.

We’d love too!” they said excitedly.

“Now I haven’t let anyone see this report just yet so please be careful with it,” Professor Kingston said as he handed over a pen drive.

“Well don’t just look at it. Take it,” the Professor said as he grabbed Liam’s hand and put it in his palm. “Oh before I forget, the pen-drive is password protected,” the Professor continued as he leaned over and whispered the password to both Liam and Harry, too softly for anyone else to overhear.

“So enjoy this little assignment boys and see what you can come back to me with by the end of the cruise,” Professor Kingston said as he pulled away.

“We’ll try our best.” Harry said smiling as he looked at Liam who was still looking in disbelief at the USB in his hands.

The Professor laughed and said, “I’m sure you will.  It’s really good to have some fresh blood in the business. Now if you excuse me, my assistant and I have other matters to attend. Come on Damian,” he said as he gave a nod and walked away.

“Holy crap! did that really just happen?” Liam said wide eyed to Harry.

“I think it did,” Harry said laughing as he patted Liam on the back. “Come on, let’s go check it out.”

***

 The rest of the day was spent pouring over the content of the report. The Professor had taken great pains to secure the document and had disabled all copy or print function, so the boys had to resort to taking photos of the screen just so they could both go through the report at their own pace.

“So according to this,” Liam said breaking the silence in the room, “the reason the remains were dismissed from being that of King Imhotep was that the bone density results were pretty conclusive on the fact that it could not possibly be that of the 90 year old king. The body was too young to be the king.”

“How young?” Harry asked as he was sprawled on his bed looking at photos of the etchings of the tomb.

“Based on the scientific findings, about twenty or thirty years old,” Liam answered.

“The King didn’t have any sons, right? So why the heck would this guy be buried with the King’s sceptre?” Harry questioned.

“Yeah, weird.  And the sceptre’s legit too. It just doesn’t make sense,” Liam said as he put his notebook down and jumped on Harry’s bed to look at the photos of the tomb etchings Harry was looking at. “Find anything interesting from the photos?”  he asked.

“I’m not sure. Look, here’s the symbol of infinity and the sign indicating the summer solstice right next to the symbol of the Sun,” Harry said moving to make room for Liam as he pointed out the pictures. “Right here’s the symbol for life and a picture of what looks to be a challis of some sort,” he continued.  “The professor’s conclusion was that it referred to the never ending cycle of the harvest which is reaped around the summer solstice, with the Challis indicating the celebration of the harvest by indulging in food and wine.”

“Well I guess that’s the most straightforward conclusion you could make but then what about the fact that the remains aren’t that of the King’s and yet the King’s sceptre itself was buried in the tomb?” Liam stated questioningly. “I know the Professor concluded that it’s likely to just be a red herring to distract people away from the real tomb where the King’s riches would most likely be, but I don’t know, there must be more to it.”

“Yeah, it does seem a little too convenient,” Harry agreed. “See these two symbols right here,” Harry said pointing to an etching that looks like a hashtag or a tic tac toe frame and another of two lines crossing one another to make a simple “X” or plus sign. “Well these aren’t your average ancient Egyptian symbols and the Professor wrote it off in his findings as just some embellishment on the wall of the pyramid.” 

“Ugh, I don’t know what to make of it though. If it’s not the conclusion that the Professor made than what alternative conclusions can there be?” Liam said turning and flopping on his back as he stared at the clock on the wall. “Whoa, how did it get to be so late, what time did Louis say the football match was?”

“Oh man!” Harry said as he quickly got up. “We have ten minutes before the game starts. Let’s go!” he said shutting his laptop and headed to the door as Liam followed.

“Whoa, wait!” Liam said as he turned back and walked to his laptop to take the Professor’s thumbdrive. “Don’t want to leave this lying around,” he said as he hooked the thumbdrive to his Batman lanyard and put it around his neck.

***

“You’ll like them,” Louis said making himself comfortable on the couch as he switched on the huge big screen TV in front of him. “They’re brothers, I think. About our age. They seem to be pretty opposite in personality but they’re both an absolute hoot.” He said as he was interrupted by a knock on the door. “Oh, I think that’s them.”

Louis scampered over the back of the couch towards the door and swung it open. “Hello boys! Come on in!” Louis said with a large grin.  Both boys gave him a warm greeting and walked into the room. 

“Whoa!!” Harry exclaimed. “What is this place? This is awesome!!” He said as he and Liam looked around the HUGE room.

It was practically a full on apartment connected to two other rooms and had a kitchen and bar area as well as a comfy lounge which could very well double as a games rooms.

One side of the wall was lined with arcade machines whereas the other wall was covered by a large screen TV connected to a state of the art entertainment system.

“Did we just walk into _MTV Cribs_ or something?” Liam said as he looked around in amazement.

“Hi guys,” A voice said as they turned to see a smiling blond boy about their age carrying a large bowl of crisps. “I’m Niall. Welcome to my place,” he said wiping his hands on his jeans before extending it as greeting.  “I actually share this ‘cabin’ with Louis whenever we go on one of these cruises, which is practically every summer it seems.”

“Seriously?” Harry said. “How do you sign up for a room like this anyway, I didn’t see this in the brochure? This place is ridiculous!”

“My Dad owns the ship, so it has its benefits, I guess.” Niall said with a shrug as he stuffed a handful of crisps in his mouth.

“His Dad doesn’t just own this ship. He owns an entire fleet of them,” Louis said from the kitchen as he took out some drinks from the fridge.

“Awesome!” both boys said as they looked around the room.

“Whoa, is that _Silent Scope_ , the sniper game?” Liam said as he walked to the line of arcade machines, “and you have the latest _Time Crisis_ and _Star Raiders_ in 4D!”

“Yup, and Niall’s nauseatingly good at it too. Nobody can touch him on any of the shooting games. His high scores are ridiculous.” Louis said as he walked over and handed them each a bottle of Pepsi.

“Haha, yeah, Louis beats me in practically everything else but any games with shooting, he can’t touch me.” Niall said, putting the bowl down. “Come on, I’ll take you for a little tour around the place,” he said motioning the boys to follow him.

The place was even more impressive than it first appeared. Apparently Niall was a little bit of a tech wiz and the entertainment system was actually hooked up to the ship’s system complete with satellite hook up and he had a lot of really impressive high tech toys that Harry and Liam had never even heard of.

“Wow,” Harry said at the end of the little tour. “If I had a place like this, I would probably spend every summer here as well.”

“Yeah. That’s what I do actually except I don’t really have a choice on the matter.” Niall said sighing as he plopped on the sofa with the large bowl of crisps. “My dad wants me to learn the business and all that stuff and since he’s always away, it’s his way to make sure he knows where I am and that I don’t get into trouble.”

Louis sniggered as he made himself comfy at the end of the sofa next to Liam. “I think you got off pretty easy considering,” he said.

“Considering what?” Liam asked in confusion.

“Considering his criminal past,” Louis said with a cheeky smirk to Niall, as he reached over to grab a handful of crisp from his bowl.

“What?” both Harry and Liam said as they turned to Louis.

“Niall here has a criminal record,” Louis said with a shrug, as he popped a crisp in his mouth.

“Liar. I do not!” Niall glared at Louis.

“Ok, fine. He was a minor and it’s been expunged but yes, he has committed heinous and horrible crimes that his Dad is making him pay for, almost four years on.” Louis said in mock seriousness.

“Shut up. It wasn’t _heinous_ ,” Niall said as he threw a handful of crisp at Louis, some landing on Liam’s lap who was between them.

“What did you do?” Liam said wide eyed.

“I hacked into some system I shouldn’t have,” Niall said shrugging. “I didn’t even really do anything. I just wanted to show that I could, ‘cause some idiot dared me to do it,” he continued as he glared at Louis.

“Yikes. That doesn’t sound like it ended well,” Liam said.

“Yeah, tell me about it. It was difficult to explain to my parents it was an innocent joke, after a bunch of government guys knocks down your door in the middle of the night threatening to arrest you and your family.” Niall shook his head. “They’re still not over it.”

“He’s lucky he was a minor and it was a first offence or he would have been sent to prison. He got off with just a year’s probation.” Louis chimed in as he leaned over Liam to get to more crisp in the bowl Niall was holding.

 “Whoa.” Liam said staring in awe at Niall. “That’s actually pretty wicked!” Harry nodded in agreement. “Our parents would most definitely have grounded us for life or something.”

“Yeah. That is what this is, kind of,” Niall said gesturing around him. “If I’m not in Uni and my parents aren’t around, which they’re not most of the time, they’ll just ship me off. Like literally. I’ve spent the last few summers here.”

“Yup. And he makes me come with him every time,” Louis groans.

“You mean, you don’t work here?” Harry asked turning to Louis.

“Not really. I just help out any which way I can. It can get pretty boring,” Louis said. “My Dad used to captain this ship for years before he moved jobs, so I’m pretty familiar with the ship and all the going ons. Besides, it’s good practical experience to have since I’m studying nautical engineering in school.”

“That and because he doesn’t have a choice in the matter since the whole thing was his fault for daring me in the first place.” Niall said leaning behind Liam and giving Louis a shove as Louis just gave a shrug of his shoulders and grinned since it really was his fault.

***

The game had ended several hours earlier with England losing badly to Barca which everyone was absolutely gutted about. No one really wanted to call it a day just yet so they had continued to chill and hang out. It was honestly surprising how well they got along since they practically only just met.

“Oh man!!” Harry said as he put down his controller after losing FIFA three times in a row to Niall. “It’s okay, mate. You’re just out of practice. Just be lucky you played me and not Louis,” Niall said as he got up to walk to the kitchen.

Harry looked at his watch and groaned. “Why does time fly so fast here?” he said turning to look at Liam who was deep in animated conversation with Louis. Liam was giving Louis a full account of their little archaeology assignment and to his credit, Louis actually looked interested. Harry decided he’d better rescue Louis anyway, before Liam rambled on any further.

“Come on Liam,” he said getting up and patting Liam on the shoulders. “Your nerd is showing.”

Liam reddened as he looked at his own watch. “Oh sheesh, sorry about that,” Liam mumbled to Louis as he realised how long he must have gone on about it.

“What? No mate, it’s cool. I can see why you guys are so into it. It’s really interesting,” Louis said as Liam stood up. “Keep me updated if you find any more clues, okay? I love mysteries.”

“Will do,” Liam said giving him a huge beaming smile and followed it with a smirk directed to Harry.

Harry rolled his eyes and grabbed a fistful of Liam’s sweater as he pulled him in the direction of the door. “Thanks again for the fantastic hospitality,” Harry said. “Other than the fact that England lost, we had a really good time.”

“Oh man, don’t remind me about that game,” Louis groaned as he stood up to walk them to the door. “The current squad is filled with newbies. I wish all the greats like Gascoign and Lineker were still playing.  Ugh, why did they have to grow old and retire? Why can’t they stay young forever?” Louis said raising his hands in dramatic fashion.

“I know, right?” Harry said in agreement as he turned the doorknob but realised Liam had stopped walking. “Hey, you okay there?” Harry said turning to Liam who stood rooted looking at Louis.

“What? Yeah.” Liam said snapping out of his reverie. “Sorry. Um thanks guys.  Thanks for having us, we really had a blast.”

“We’ll see you around, yeah? Drop by anytime!” Niall said waving from the kitchen.

“You’re right,” Niall said through a mouthful of cold pizza as Louis closed the door. “They’re pretty cool guys. Feel like I’ve known them forever. It’s gonna be an interesting cruise with them around.”

***

Harry awoke to somebody poking his cheeks. “Huh. What?” Harry muttered confused as he opened tired eyes to see Liam’s face several inches away from his own. “What time is it?” He asked sleepily.

“It’s five,” Liam answered with a wince.

“In the morning?” Harry asked incredulous. “What the heck, Liam? Let me sleep already!” Harry said as he grabbed the blankets and threw them over his head.

“Harry, wake up. I think I found something,” Liam said as he tugged at Harry’s blanket.

Harry flung the blanket aside and looked at Liam in exasperation. “Seriously? And this couldn’t wait until the sun came up at least?”

“Well, um... No?” Liam said almost apologetically but he really needed to share what he had found.

Harry looked at Liam and rolled his eyes as he fell back on his bed in defeat. “Fine, what is it? What is this _important thing_ that you’ve _just discovered_ that you _cannot wait_ to share with me, Liam? _Pray tell_ ,” Harry said closing his eyes as he felt a headache coming on.

Liam grinned and hopped excitedly onto Harry’s bed holding his laptop and ignoring Harry’s dramatic groan from all the jostling.

“So last night, Louis said something that really got me thinking,” he started.

“He did?” Harry looked questioningly at Liam.

“Yeah what he said about Gascoign and Lineker and how we wished they didn’t have to retire and they could be young forever. Well what if--and this is a big what if--but what if, the remains they found were actually that of the King!” Liam said eyes wide with excitement.

“Please start making sense soon,” Harry groaned. “It really is too early for this.”

“Well, it’s just that we have all these different elements of the puzzle that seems to indicate that it is in fact the tomb of King Imhotep, what with the sceptre and the pyramid and all. The one thing that doesn’t fit in all of this is the scientific conclusion that the remains are too young to be that of the King. But what if we take away that conclusion and assume that it is in fact the King. Then every other element of the puzzle would more or less fit and some would take on a different meaning. Like this infinity symbol for example,” Liam said pointing at the picture of the etching on the wall of the tomb.

“I mean, infinity basically means forever right? So instead of never ending cycle of the harvest like the professor concluded, maybe it means never ending life or, you know, _forever young_! Just think about it,” Liam said turning to face Harry who was still looking at him quizzically, “the King was in reign for 9 decades, Harry. Nine freaking decades! That’s practically unheard off during that era. With the state of health and medicine the way it was then, life expectancy at most was about 40 to 50 years or so.  To go beyond that, let alone practically double it, would honestly be a miracle, right? So maybe, just maybe, he discovered just that.”

“A miracle? What… like a fountain or elixir of youth or something?” Harry asked opening his eyes and looking at Liam.

“Exactly. Or something,” Liam said excitedly. “Add that to the fact that the remains were of someone who had the King’s sceptre with him? Come on. There’s no way they would create a red herring and plant the King’s real sceptre beside some fake imposter, unless… well unless it was really the King himself.”

“Okay,” Harry said as he propped himself up on his elbow and turned to face Liam. “So what you’re saying is that the remains were actually that of the King, just that the 90 year old King had some kind of magical elixir or something that kept him young, hence when he died, which probably was not due to illness, he was still technically in all scientific respect, a young guy.” Harry finished looking intently at Liam.

Liam held his gaze but after a pause slumped his head back down on Harry’s pillow and squeezed his eyes. “You think I’m crazy,” he said with a sigh. “I know, it’s a bit of a stretch. Well okay, a lot of a stretch, but...”

“Shut up Liam, just let me think about this for a minute,” Harry said as he reached over Liam to grab the laptop and started typing furiously, as Liam looked at him in surprised.

“Okay, here it is,” Harry said as he turned the laptop for Liam to see. “I was reading this article yesterday about King Imhotep’s background and history and look at what it says.” 

“What?” Liam asked curious.

“It basically says the King was known as a deity of medicine and healing,” Harry said smiling as he saw Liam’s eyes light up. Harry continued reading from the article, “It says that during his reign, there was a profound advancement in medicine and healing, and the whole ‘deity’ reference came about because of the fact that some of the ‘medical’ advancements were thought to be ahead of its time and practically bordering on miracles. I mean, that would go with that conclusion more or less, correct?”  

“So you don’t think I’m crazy?” Liam said breaking out into a wide grin.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I didn’t say that, I’m just trying to consider the possibility and think outside the box a little bit. That’s what we do best, right?”

“So, if your crazy theory is right, how would we explain the other symbols on the tomb?” Harry said pulling up the photos of the etchings on his laptop.

“Okay, so if infinity means eternal life, what about the summer solstice symbol and the challis? Can we still go by the Professor’s conclusion about the eternal harvest or can we make different ones based on this assumption?”

“I don’t think we can make any final conclusions without further clues and evidence. But how cool would it be if it were true though,” Liam said looking at Harry who seemed fully awake now. “If only we could find more evidence to back that theory up”.

“I know, right? I have a feeling those two patterns that don’t fit anywhere would shed some light onto this a bit more. I guess we’re gonna have to dig deeper,” Harry said as Liam got up from Harry’s bed and climbed back into his own.

“Phew. I really needed to get that off my chest. Thanks for listening. You can go back to sleep now if you want.” Liam said as Harry looked at him incredulously.

“Great! Now that I’m wide awake you ask me to go back to sleep!” Harry said throwing a pillow at Liam and flinging his comforter to the side. “Since I did you a huge favour, I think it’s time you do me one now. Get up and come with me.”

“Where’re we going?” Liam asked in confusion.

“We’re going for a morning swim,” Harry said as he ruffled through their luggage and threw Liam his towel and trunks and quickly started changing into his own.

“Since when have you ever been interested in starting your morning with a swim, or any other form of exercise for that matter,” Liam asked suspiciously.

“Heeey, I try to lead a healthy lifestyle,” Harry said offended as he looked at Liam who just raised an eyebrow in return. “Okay, since I took a sneak peak at the volleyball camp schedule and saw that they have water aerobics and activities near the pool every morning at sunrise.” Harry grinned as he opened the door to the cabin.

“Well come on!!” he said ignoring the groan from Liam as he made his way out the door. 

 

They had finished their afternoon seminar and had a couple hours free for “recreation” before the start of the evening session.

Harry and Liam had taken the opportunity to fully explore the ship and all that it had to offer. It was indeed huge, and other than the seminar rooms and the banquet hall, it had a bar/club which apparently was the place to be at nights, particularly amongst the volleyball players. It also had a small supermarket, a café, and even a three lane bowling alley and a small cinema which showed a variety of movies. The facilities were impressive and designed to make sure that passengers had some activity or the other to do without getting bored being on a ship for weeks on end.

They were sitting on lounge chairs on the pool deck each nursing a fruity drink equipped with tiny umbrellas when Louis and Niall plopped themselves down on the lounge chairs next to them.

“Hello boys!” Louis said enthusiastically as he licked a huge ice cream cone in an attempt to stop it from dripping onto the white t-shirt he was wearing. It didn’t work.

“You look wrecked mate. Did you get any sleep at all last night?” Niall said looking at Liam as he motioned for Louis to scoot over a bit more with one hand whilst holding an ice cream cone of his own in the other.

“Don’t tell me you were up solving the mystery of the missing King whatshisname and his treasure?” Louis interjected with a mouthful of ice cream.

‘Why yes. Yes, he was. And he had no qualms waking up his fellow room occupant to share his thoughts and findings, at crazy o’clock in the morning.” Harry glared at Liam while Liam made a face at him.

Niall laughed as he reached over to pat Liam on the shoulders and said, “Aw, mate, you gotta learn to chill and enjoy the cruise, the beautiful weather, and the beautiful people,” he added as he eyed a group of volleyball players walking pass them to get to the pool showers.  “You know what they say about all work and no play.”

“Yes, thank you, Niall. Exactly what I was saying,” Harry said as he took a sip of his drink.

 “So did you find out anything new?” Louis asked turning to Liam.

“What? Don’t encourage him!” Harry exclaimed as he saw Liam’s eyes light up at the question.

“Why yes, yes we did, Louis. Thank you for asking.” Liam smirked as Harry groaned and mumbled, “Here we go...”

***

“No way!! Seriously? And you got that from what I said about football?!” Louis said laughing as Liam recounted their most recent theory. “Mate, if you ever find that treasure, I’m calling dibs on a part of it. That was pretty genius if I do say so myself,” Louis said smugly.

“Okay, enough talk about work,” Harry said grabbing a towel. “I’m going for a swim,” he said eyeing the pool filled with some of the volleyball players who were having a little break of their own. “Anybody wanna join me?”

“I’m in,” Niall said taking off his t-shirt and shoes then following after Harry.

“You’re not joining them?” Louis asked as Liam pulled on his shades and leaned back in the lounge chair.

“Nah. I think I’ll take a little nap to make up for last night.”

“What? No. Don’t be boring. Come play a little one on one basketball with me.” Louis said with a grin as he pulled off Liam’s shades and put them on the table next to the chair.

“Really?” Liam said squinting up at Louis.

“Yes really. I just had a huge ass ice cream and I’ve got some extra energy to work out.”

“Well I don’t,” Liam mumbled as Louis practically pulled him up from the chair.

“Come on. Remember what Niall said about all work and no play. Don’t worry, I’ll be easy on you. I’ll even spot you five points.” Louis said with a grin leading the way to the half court which was located on the same deck.

 ***

“What the heck was that?” Louis said as Liam intercepted his dribble and followed it with a lay up which saw the ball hit the backboard and sink into the basket.

“What was what?” Liam asked in confusion.

“That thing you just did!!”  Louis said motioning wildly with his hands.

“What? The lay up just now? What about it?” he asked whilst still bouncing the ball looking for another opportunity to get past Louis.

“You’re a liar!” Louis said with a huff. “You _can_ play!”

“Huh?” Liam stopped dribbling only to have Louis smack the ball from his hand and immediately shooting it into the basket.

“Heeeey!” Liam said with a laugh. “No fair! And I never said I couldn’t play,” he said as he took possession of the ball again and immediately dribbled the ball through Louis’ legs and swiftly ran around him before following it through with a clean jump shot sailing the ball through the basket. “You probably  just assumed,” Liam said turning back with a smile.

“But-- but you’re supposed to be this huge archaeology nerd or whatnot! You’re not supposed to be good in sports!” Louis said indignantly causing Liam to laugh out loud.

“Mate, don’t judge a book by its cover and never, ever underestimate your opponent,” Liam said with a grin and throwing Louis the ball. “That’s 7 – 1, your turn”.

“What?! No! Score’s only 2–1. I’m not spotting you that 5.” Louis said with a pout just short of stomping his foot.

“But you already did!”

“I take it back! I didn’t know you were a freaking hustler”.

“I’m not a hustler! We’re not even playing for money!” Liam said in disbelief as he looked at Louis who was giving him a scowl.

“Okay, fine! You can take back your precious five points,” Liam relented, effectively turning Louis scowl into a smug grin.

“You’re terrible!” Liam said shaking his head in amusement. “Tell you what. Let’s just play without the points, okay?”

“Well I think that would be best for you since I was clearly gonna win anyway.” Louis quipped in reply.

“What?!” Liam said looking up from the ball and swallowed his protest when he was met with a big cheeky grin on Louis face.

“Yes. Clearly,” Liam said instead, matching Louis grin as he faked a left and jumped to take a shot which saw the ball sink in the basket with nothing but net.

Raucous laughter from the pool got their attention as they turned to see Niall being knocked off of Harry’s shoulders after being hit right smack in the forehead by a volleyball. Apparently, they had teamed up to play a game of pool volleyball against two volleyball players with one player also on top of the other’s shoulders and with a net strung up between them. They didn’t seem like they were faring very well although they didn’t seem like they were complaining about it either.

 “Well they look like they’re having fun,” Louis said as he turned back to their basketball game.

“Yeah,” Liam agreed. “I really hope so, because I was worried that Harry was going to be bored to death on the cruise and would hold it against me for the rest of my life! Whoever was the one who made the decision to sign on the men and women's volleyball training camp together with the archaeology conference was a freaking genius.”

“Why, thank you Liam,” Louis said with a smug smile.

“Wait, what? That was you?” Liam said wide eyed.

“Well, me and Niall,” Louis said with a shrug. “Although we didn’t really make the decision. We just maybe put forward the suggestion and followed it with a lot of persuasive arguments and maybe a little bit of whining,” Louis finished with a grin. “The whining was mostly Niall though.”

“Of course,” Liam said, also with a grin.  It was pretty contagious.

“Well, I gotta hand it to you and Niall. Nothing can breathe life and excitement to an archaeology conference than a bunch of  volleyball players running around in the same space confines. It’s like the perfect balance,” Liam said.

“I know, right? That was exactly the argument we put forward when we were lobbying the idea. We were only really thinking of the poor conference members’ interest after all,” Louis said in mock seriousness as Liam doubled over in laughter.

***

“So you really think there’s treasure to be found,” Louis said after a while as they were playing.

“Actually I do,” Liam said as he continued dribbling the ball. “It’s customary for the King to be buried with his treasure and riches. For there to be nothing except for the tomb itself and a sceptre, well that’s just not right. If it isn’t in the tomb then it must be somewhere, and I really think the answer to that is somewhere in the pyramid itself. Harry and I’ve been combing through all the pictures taken of all the findings and I just feel like we’re missing something.”

“So tell me what other clues you have,” Louis said as he intercepted the ball and walked to the side of the court to take a seat.

Liam looked at Louis suspiciously as he said, “You’re not taking the piss out of me are you?”

“Mate shut up already. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re on a ship in the middle of the ocean and there’s buried treasure to be found. I am so on board with this, no pun intended, so no, I am not just humouring you! Just spill,” Louis said as Liam broke into a grin and grabbed his phone.

“Ok then, here’s some pictures of the site where they found the pyramids and the remains. There’s some etchings on the wall that we think may provide some clues as to where the treasure might be. It’s just a matter of deciphering it to see whether it fits with the theory we have so far.” Liam handed over the phone for Louis to see.

“What’s this symbol right here?” Louis asked pointing it out to Liam.

“That one is the symbol for life and right next to it is an infinity sign. Those actually support the forever young theory I told you about. But we haven’t quite figured out what these here symbols are and how they fit in with everything,” Liam said pointing out to the summer solstice symbol, the chalice and the picture of the sun which seems to shine straight down on an etching of a pyramid.

“So when exactly is the summer solstice?” Louis asked looking up from the phone.

Liam shrugged and said, “I’m not sure about the date cause I think there might be slight variation from year to year but here,” he said taking his phone from Louis who appeared to be deep in contemplation. “Let me google it.”

“So it says here this year, it’s supposed to be on the 21st of June,” Liam said after a while, handing back the phone to Louis.

“Whoa, that’s like next week,” Louis said excitedly.  “Okay, so we have the chalice, the sun, the summer solstice as well as the infinite life symbol. Hmm. I don’t know man, I know you need supporting evidence and all that crap but speaking from someone who does not have any background knowledge on this archaeology stuff but who has seen his fair share of treasure and adventure movies, I’m gonna guess that this whole forever young miracle elixir is something that you need to consume in this chalice of some sorts,” he said pointing to the etching of the chalice, “on the day of the summer solstice for it to actually work or something like that.” Louis finished.

Liam looked at him for a while and looked down at the pictures on his phone with a frown. “It can’t be that simple,” he said shaking his head slowly. “It’s never that straightforward.”

“But what if it is Liam?  You know Occam’s razor and all.”

‘Okum what?” Liam asked confused.

“The principle of Occam’s Razor.  The easiest answer is probably the right one,” Louis said. “Anyways, even if the pictures tell a pretty straightforward story, there’s nothing straightforward about where the treasure is buried is there? There doesn’t seem to be anything here that provides any clue whatsoever about that.”

“You could be right,”  Liam said contemplating. “At least I really hope you’re right. Everything would fit in so nicely. Well except where the treasure is buried but one small mystery at a time, I guess.” He said slowly looking up and turning to Louis.

“Occam’s razor huh?” Liam said breaking into a grin. “Who’s the nerd now?” he finished as he quickly ducked out of Louis’ grip.

“Tell anyone and I will personally make you walk the plank,” Louis said as he grabbed Liam and reached forward to tweak his nipples. “I’ve got a rep to protect,” he said with a scowl.

“Ouch! Your secret’s safe with me,” Liam said laughing as he tried unsuccessfully to dodged Louis’ oncoming attacks.

***

“Hello, boys?” Professor Kingston said as he approached Harry and Liam after their evening seminar session.

 “Are you enjoying your little assignment so far?” he said as he pulled a chair and sat himself down.

“Evening Professor. And yes we are actually,” Liam said earnestly. “Thanks again for giving it to us, it’s really, really interesting.”

“I see you’ve been working hard on it,” the Professor said as he eyed the notes and laptop on their table. “Is it too soon to ask for an update?” the Professor asked, smiling.

“We’re still going over...” Harry started at the same time as Liam said,  “Well we do have a... ” and both stopped abruptly as they looked at each other.

Harry quickly recovered and said “We’re still going over the materials you gave us and developing possible theories but nothing concrete just yet,” Harry finished as Liam nodded in agreement.

The Professor looked at both the boys and asked, “So what possible theories have you developed so far?”

“We’re not quite sure just yet Professor. It’s just that I think we need to dig a little bit deeper before we can really fully form anything concrete,” Liam answered.

“But you do have some kind of theory that you’re working on, I’m guessing. Just that you need to back it up with more evidence, then?” The Professor said with a raised eyebrow. “Well, then spill,” he persisted as he saw the boys looking at each other, “I gave you the assignment, I’m entitled to an update,” he said.

“Well, okay, but it’s really just preliminary and honestly, a little bit out there,” Liam said turning back to the Professor after Harry gave him a nod and a shrug.

Professor Kingston leaned back as Liam and Harry finished sharing their theory. “See, we told you it was a little bit out there. It’s just that without further evidence to support that theory, people would just think we were–“

“That you were crazy?” the Professor said finishing Liam’s sentence.

Liam looked at Harry worriedly, wondering whether they had made the right decision in sharing their theory with the Professor when he continued. “And that boys, is the very reason, why I didn’t put down that very exact finding,” he said looking directly at them.

“What? You– you mean, you had the same theory?” Liam sputtered as he looked from Harry to the Professor. “But your conclusions…”

“You boys and I both know that the conclusions were convenient. It was the most logical solution I could make with the evidence there was, without sounding like a deranged loony who had gone way past his prime. But yes, my theories, were the exact one that you have,” the Professor said nodding his head.

“It makes the most sense in the whole scheme of things and yet the least sense scientifically. I worked at it for ages but everywhere I went with that theory I was met with a dead end.  I just couldn’t afford to make that conclusion without any further evidence to support it. That’s where I was hoping you boys would help me out. After this, I am taking a step back from the archaeology world and finally retiring. I didn’t want the very last publication of mine to be incomplete and to have the conclusions be something that was just ‘convenient.’ I truly believe the answer is out there and I know you boys believe it too.” The Professor got up to leave. “I’m amazed that you’ve actually come this far in such a short period of time.  Great job, boys. So please, keep at it.” He said smiling down. “Also there may be something at the ship’s mini museum display that will be opening in a couple of days that might be of interest to you,” the Professor whispered with a grin as he turned around to walk away leaving the boys to look at each other in wonder.

***

 “So how did you get geekboy to come out and play,” Louis nodded over to Liam who was having a game of pool with Niall surrounded by a bunch of volleyball players who were not-so-subtly admiring the duo.

“Like I always do,” Harry answered with a cheeky grin as he deftly typed on his phone. “I threatened to tell our Mum,” he said as Louis laughed, shaking his head.

“I take it those are freshly obtained phone numbers you’re keying in?” Louis said watching Harry fiddling with his phone. 

“May-be,” Harry said smiling but not looking up.

“And just how many numbers did you get?” Louis said with a raised eyebrow.

“A couple,” Harry said finally looking up with full dimples on display.

“How the heck are you even brothers?” Louis said turning to look at Liam who was across the room. He had stopped playing pool to talk to a girl who had apparently approached him and Louis winced as Liam’s pool cue hit the glass the girl was holding spilling the content all over her top. Both Harry and Louis watched as Liam apologised profusely and quickly took out his handkerchief (and really, who even carries around handkerchiefs anymore) to earnestly wipe out the stain but stopped suddenly when he realised that he was basically wiping down her boobs. Quickly taking a step back he in turn was met with a loud “OWW” from the volleyball player behind him whose feet he had apparently stepped on and which caused another round of profuse apologies.

“Yikes,” Louis said in a grimace, as he slowly turned back to the bar he was helping tend for the night.  “So seriously, was one of you adopted or something?”

Harry laughed, shaking his head in empathy after watching the small scene and turning back to Louis.

"Actually I can give him a run for his money on the whole clumsiness thing." Harry sniggered.   “But to answer your question, yes, we are brothers. In every sense of the word, except probably by blood although even that’s inconclusive ever since Liam and I did that blood pact when we were nine,” Harry said smiling at the memory.

“Dammit. Way to put my foot in my mouth,” Louis said with a grimace. “I was actually kidding about the adopted thing.” 

“Nah, it’s cool.” Harry said good naturedly. “Actually Liam’s biological mother was my mom’s best friend growing up. Her and her husband were involved in a bad car wreck when she was about seven month’s pregnant with Liam. They died but Liam survived although he was premature. Mom had agreed to be the godmother and since they both didn’t really have family that could take care of him she offered to take him instead since my parents really wanted a child of their own anyway. What they didn’t know was that she was already a couple of months pregnant with me. That’s why we’re so close in age. But adopted or not though, he’s my brother in every sense of the word.” Harry said as Louis listened attentively.

“Yeah, you guys seem pretty tight. But how is it that you have the charm and confidence right down pat and Liam, well, not so much?”

“I don’t know, I had a little bit of a head start I guess.” Harry answered with a shrug.

“What do you mean? I thought you said Liam was older.”

“Well yeah, not by much, it’s just that he got the short end of the stick because of the premature thing. Well, healthwise anyway. Whilst most of us were busy playing in sand pits and hanging out in playgrounds making friends with other kids, he was busy going in and out of hospital trying to stay alive. He’s fine now though,” Harry added quickly when he saw Louis’ alarmed eyes. “He’s down a kidney but he’s fine,” he said reassuringly.

“Wow. That’s good to know. Never would have thought,” Louis said looking at Liam.

“Yeah, he had to work hard to be healthy and to stay healthy and I’m kinda proud of him on how he’s handled it honestly but the thing is his illness went on for quite a while so by the time everything settled a bit, he was already behind on the whole social aspect of things you know and it’s just not that easy to fully catch up I guess. Plus kids can be pretty mean.”

“Oh no, did they give him a hard time?” Louis asked dreading the answer.

“Yeah pretty much,” Harry said suddenly serious. “Our parents liked to read these books about bringing up kids and all, and apparently were advised to separate kids in the same year in different schools so that we’re not interdependent on one another or some bull like that. So we weren’t in the same school or anything. Plus, because he felt like he put us through so much already when he was ill, he was kinda selective about the things he shared since he didn’t want anyone to worry about him even more, so um, our parents weren’t really aware of the hard time he was going through.”

“Darn that’s rough,” Louis said shaking his head.

“Yeah it was,” Harry said with pursed lips.

“But we managed to pull through it. He changed school and joined mine and we both enrolled in boxing class and slowly he became less and less of a target.” Harry said before he continued “And he’s been taking lessons on how to be cool from yours truly.”

And THAT is the end result?” Louis said quirking his eyebrow as he looked at Liam’s attempts from across the room.

“Hey! He’s a work in progress, okay? Believe me when I say he is a heck of a lot better at it than he was previously.”

“Wait, you mean he was worse?” Louis said in disbelief.

“A lot worse,” Harry said laughing. “He’d get all tongue-tied and just stand there like a lemon and wouldn’t be able to string two sentences together. It would usually end up with him needing me to rescue him. That right there is a huge improvement, trust me.”

“Wow,” Louis laughed. “That actually kinda sounds like Niall except he’s never tongue tied. He just talks and talks and talks and doesn’t even realize whether the topic is appropriate or not,” Louis said shaking his head as Harry burst out laughing.

 “So I take it you’re having fun on this cruise?” Louis said as he turned back to Harry.

“Did Liam ask you to ask me that?” Harry asked suspiciously.

Louis snickered, “No. Although he did say how he was worried you would hate it and that he won’t hear the end of it from you ‘cause you would most likely blame him for ruining your summer.”

Harry smiled cheekily. “Of course he would. And next time you talk to him about it tell him I’m miserable, and that he owes me big time but I’ll get over it if he gets me VIP tickets to see Jay-Z.”

“Mate you’re having the time of your life. Anyone can see that. Except for Liam somehow. Just tell him that and stop making him feel guilty.”

“What? And give him the satisfaction. Nuh-uh. That’s not how it works mate. Liam on a guilt trip is the best kind of Liam. I can make him do just about anything. Trust me. I’ve worked this to a fine art,” he said smiling smugly.

“You’re terrible,” Louis sniggered shaking his head.

“Oh please. Don’t tell me that’s not your M.O. as well. Obviously you’re in your element on the cruise and yet I’ve heard you groan and gripe about it to Niall about having to come on it in the first place. Don’t lie. I’ve seen you do it more than once.”

Louis was about to protest but relented at Harry’s raise eyebrow. “Okay fine. I would have come on the cruise even if Niall didn’t force me by laying out the guilt trip every year,” he said with a shrug. “‘Cause it's Niall, you know. He’s more than a friend. He’s like family and I really can’t think of a better way to spend summer vacation to be honest. Buuut, he doesn’t need to know that,” Louis said sternly pointing a finger at Harry.

“Exactly,” Harry said nodding in agreement. “See? It’s a ‘family’ thing.”

“Yeah, I guess it is. I’ll keep your secret if you keep mine,” Louis said in mock seriousness extending a pinky to Harry.

“A pinky swear? Seriously? I think you’ve been hanging around Liam a little bit too much,” Harry said with a raised eyebrow but linking his pinky to Louis’ nevertheless.

“How dare you!” Louis said offended. “I’ll have you know, I have been pinky swearing way before I met you and your brother.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Harry said with a laugh just as Liam sank into the stool next to him in a groan.

“Ugh. Somebody should ban me from this place. I’m not even kidding. I’m a walking hazard,” Liam said as he slumped his head on the bar.

Louis gave him a sympathetic smile. “Let me get you a drink mate,” he said putting down an empty glass in front of Liam. “What will it be?” he asked.

“Thanks.” Liam looked at him gratefully. “I don’t supposed you have a glass of warm milk?”

“Seriously Liam?” Harry exclaimed, eyes wide and looking around to check whether anyone else had overheard. “We’re in a freaking bar, surrounded by beautiful people and you’re asking for a warm glass of milk?” he said in disbelief.

“What? You know it helps me sleep at night.” Liam said with a frown.

“Oh-kay then,” Harry said shaking his head as Louis looked on bending over in laughter.

“We actually do have some milk,” Louis said between laughs. “I’ll go get it for you. By any chance do you want some cookies with that?” he said turning back to Liam as he was just about to walk into the doors to the kitchen and immediately regretted the joke when he saw Liam’s eyes lit up.

“Whoa, Liam. I was kidding. No cookies. None. Okay?” Louis said quickly.

“What? I– I knew that,” Liam said indignantly and scoffed a little too unconvincingly as Harry broke into a coughing fit after almost snorting down his drink.

***

Liam was nursing his warm milk contentedly when he groaned as he saw Harry flirting with not one but two pretty blondes.

“What’s wrong?” Louis asked, as he turned to see what Liam was looking at.

“Nothing,” Liam said shaking his head dismissively.

“Mate, spill. I brought you your milk, I think I’ve earned the right to hear your thoughts,” he said turning to the direction Liam was looking at.

Spotting Harry and the blondes, Louis gave a slight raise of an eyebrow to Liam and said, “You’re not jealous, are you?”

“What?!” Liam looked at him incredulous. “No! Of course not. Don’t be silly.”

“Then what is it?” Louis pressed.

“Ugh. It’s really nothing. It’s just that, there’s only so many people he can flirt with on this ship.  I mean three weeks of this. I just wish he would dial it back a bit, you know? I admire his confidence, I really do and he’s definitely a charmer, but he’s getting this reputation which makes people think he’s just a Lothario or something. ‘Cause he’s not, you know.  He’s so much more than that but people only see what they wanna see and I just, I don’t want him to end up getting hurt because of it.” Liam said as he turned back to the bar to finish off his drink.  “He deserves someone who sees him for the kind good hearted person he is and not just this playboy image that people seem to have of him.”

 “Okay, stop. Seriously. You guys are killing me here. I’m not accustomed to so much show of brotherly love.” Louis said, clutching his heart in dramatic fashion as Liam grabbed some nuts in a nearby bowl and threw it at him.

“Shut up. You asked,” Liam said laughing.  “We never had this conversation okay. And if you tell him, then I will personally make you walk the plank,” Liam said pointing his finger at Louis in mock threat just like Louis had done earlier that day.

“Your secret’s safe with me,” Louis said laughing as he held out his knuckle for a pound which Liam returned by closing his hands over said knuckles.

“Uh, what was that?”  he said wide eyed, his knuckles still out.

“What was what?” Liam looked up confused.

“Just– Oh, nevermind,” Louis said shaking his head and stopping himself before he got into a full on theory and practical speech on the workings of a fistbump, because seriously who are these crazy people and how can he adopt them.

***

“Hey guys!” Niall said as he sauntered over, empty drink in hand. “Lou, a refill please,” he said handing over the glass. “Oh hey, before I forget, I did that thing you wanted me to do.”

“Did you bring it?” Louis asked.

“Yeah, yeah, its right here,” he said retrieving something from his back pocket.

“Give it to Liam,” Louis motioned as he poured Niall another drink.

“What is it?” Liam asked, confused. He looked down at the folded piece of paper that Niall handed over.

“It’s the listing of artifacts that’ll be on display in the mini museum. For some reason or the other, they’re keeping it hush hush until the actual opening ceremony, so don’t tell anyone I got this, okay?” Niall said as he took a sip from his freshly refilled glass.

“How’d you get it then?” Liam asked looking up at Niall questioningly.

“I may have deployed my many talents,” Niall said.

“You did not!” Liam said wide-eyed.

“What?” Niall said with a shrug. “It was in the ship’s system, which granted I’m not supposed to mess around with, but it was just there. And Louis said you wanted it so...”

“Wow, thanks. You really didn’t have to,” Liam said gratefully.

“Nah, don’t mention it. It was actually kinda fun. They stepped up the security on the entire system so I had to get creative. It was good practice.” Niall said with a grin as he walked off with full drink in hand into the sea of people on the dance floor.

“Holy fudgecakes Batman!” Liam exclaimed as he looked at the list.

“Find anything interesting?” Louis said as he turned back to Liam after serving another customer.

“I can’t believe it! They have the freaking sceptre on the list.” Liam looked up at Louis wide-eyed.

“What? You mean, the sceptre you guys were talking about?” Louis said raising his eyebrows.

“Yes! The actual sceptre of King Imhotep is right here on this ship right now! Oh boy, I gotta tell Harry,” Liam said as he disappeared into the crowd looking for his brother.

***

“I’m sorry, I really kinda need him right now,” Liam said apologetically to the group of people Harry was having an intense conversation with, as he grabbed Harry’s arms and dragged him outside the club room.

“Oh you did not just do that!” Harry said looking back longingly at the spot he just left. "I had my eye on that gorgeous brunette so help me god this had better be life and death!"

"Well not really life and death," Liam said with a little frown but his face quickly lit up with excitement again as he continued, "But guess what?!"

"Not really in the mood to play guessing games right now Liam, but I am in the mood for something else, so if you'll excuse me..."

"No! Wait!"  Liam said turning Harry back to face him. "The sceptre, King Imhotep's sceptre, it’s right here on this ship!"

"What?" Harry said confused. 

"It's one of the artifacts on display in the mini museum! Can you believe it?!"  Liam said eyes crinkling with excitement.

"What, seriously? That's actually pretty cool," Harry conceded. 

“I know, right! Let’s go check it out,” Liam said excitedly.

“Whoa, whoa there. And how do you expect us to do that?” Harry said putting a hand on Liam’s shoulders. “The display doesn’t open to the public until the day after tomorrow. Until then, I’m pretty sure it's kept under lock and key, Liam. I think we’re gonna have to wait it out.”

“Oh man, I didn’t think of that.  Two days! I don’t know whether I can wait that long. ” Liam said frustrated.

“Maybe you don’t have to.” Harry and Liam immediately turned to see Louis walk up with a mischievous smile on his face.

“What are you saying,” Harry said suspiciously.

“Oh I don’t know. It’s about time something exciting happened on this ship don’t you think and I’m in the mood for a little breaking and entering, what about you?” Louis said with a sneaky glint in his eyes.

“Are you kidding us right now? Won’t we get into trouble?” Liam asked wide-eyed.

“Think about it guys, who does this ship belong to? Niall’s dad. So it’s practically Niall’s, and honestly how can you be trespassing or caught breaking and entering when you own the freaking ship in the first place, right? Trust me. It’ll be fun.”

***

“What the heck are you two wearing?” Niall said turning to Liam and Louis who were decked out in all black with a hoodie to boot. “Seriously, you guys couldn’t look more suspicious if you tried.” He said as Liam and Louis looked at each other with Harry looking on trying to contain his laughter.

“I’m sorry, but what do you wear for a B&E anyway? It’s not like we do this on the regular?” Liam said looking down at his outfit.

“From someone who actually does have a criminal record, trust me when I say that keep it cool and inconspicuous. Jeans and sports shoes are the way to go. Simple and comfy, just as long as there’s no bright colours. That way you can easily play it off as being lost or something if you get caught, okay?” Niall finished as Liam and Louis begrudgingly agreed and started tossing clothing items to each other to wear.

“Okay, I’m in,” Niall said motioning the others to look at the large screen display in front of them. “There’s two entry and exit points to the room where the artifacts display is. One is the main door where you have to use a master key as well as swipe card with a six digit pin key system. That door is constantly monitored by this cctv camera here,” he said pointing to the screen where he had tapped into the cctv feed.  

 “There’s apparently a 24 hour guard posted there which accordingly to their routine schedule here,” he continued as he pulled up another page in a different display screen, “he’ll remain there until 0200 hours where another guard will take over. The other entry and exit point is basically the back door to the display room where delivery is usually done. This exit is also monitored by a cctv here,” he said motioning to a third screen where the feed was displayed. That door only uses a swipe card with a 6 digit pin key system with no master key. There is however a guard posted but he is not stationed there 24/7. He just does a round every half an hour or so.  I’m thinking this exit and entry point would be the best bet if you guys wanna go in.” He finished as both Harry and Liam looked on in awe whereas Louis was looking on with a beaming smile.

“Wow. I feel like I’m in _Ocean's Eleven_ or something,” Liam said reeling from all the information Niall had shared.

“You haven’t seen nothing yet,” Louis said as he patted Niall’s shoulders.

“Here, you and Harry take this inner earpiece,” Louis said as he handed it to them. “So this acts as a radio transmitter where we can hear each other, right Niall?”

“That’s right, it’s a two way communicator, so I can hear you guys as well as long as we’re on the same frequency.”

“Seriously though. Where do you get all of this?” Harry said as he fiddled with the inner earpiece in awe.

“I just really like my tech toys,” Niall said with a shrug. “Plus it can get really boring on this cruise sometimes if you’ve been here long enough. Me and Louis’ gotta find a way to entertain ourselves,” he finished with a grin.

“Okay boys,” Louis said holding his hand out as all the others followed suit. “Let’s do this!”

***

They had timed it just right because the guard that was in charge of the back exit was just completing his rounds and headed the other direction. They waited until they couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore before they slowly entered the corridor that led to the back door of the artifacts room.

“Coast is clear,” Niall’s voice came through crisp and clear through their inner ear monitors.  “It’s the door on your right about 50 meters ahead of you,” he said from where he was stationed safely in front of the screens in his and Louis unit. He had made sure to record a couple minutes of the video feed of all the cctvs in the area and replayed it on a loop so that anyone else watching would not be able to see the boys. He himself had a good view of both the replayed loop as well as the actual feed and was able to guide the boys as they made their way to the room.

“Okay Niall, we’re here,” Louis said as he stood in front of the door looking at the swipe card key system in front of him.

“Right. Listen carefully. Take the key card I gave to Harry. I’ve temporarily changed the key card system to the room to read that particular key card but just make sure you key in the right pin okay. Three tries and the alarm will be set off and the room will go into automatic lock down, so just don’t make a mistake.”

“Oh boy,” Liam said nervously as Harry handed over the key card to Louis with a quiet “Be careful.”

“Okay read me the pin code, Niall” Louis said as he swiped the card through the system.

“2-3-2-6-7-7,” Niall said carefully as Louis slowly keyed in the numbers.

The light indicator blinked red a couple of times before it suddenly turned green to the collective relief of all the boys.

“Okay, we’re in,” Louis whispered gleefully as he quietly pushed the doors to the artifacts room open.

All three boys cautiously made their way into the room and closed the door behind them. It was huge and in the dim light of their torches they could see the different artifacts displayed all throughout the room.

“Try not to make much noise okay because there’s another guard stationed at the main entrance,” Niall said reminding them.

“By any chance, would it be possible to switch on the lights to his place,” Harry said looking around.  “Not sure how much we can make out from just the lights from our torches.”

“Hold on,” Niall said taking a quick look at the layout of the room within the system. “The door’s corrugated iron with a sliding mechanism with no space in between to allow light to seep through. There are also no windows to the room so I think it should be safe.”

“Great.” Louis mumbled. “Now we just have to figure out where the light switch is–” he said looking around when all of a sudden the entire room was illuminated as all the lights in the room came on at once startling him and Harry that they both almost dropped their torchlights.

“What the hell!” Louis said clutching at Harry who was beside him as they both looked around frantically.

“Yikes, sorry, that was me,” Liam said apologetically holding his hands out trying to calm the two.

“For crying out loud. A little warning please Liam,” Louis whispered as he switched off his torchlight and pocketed it.

“Sorry about that. I found the light switch,” Liam said pointing to a small lever on the wall.

“No kidding,” Harry said as he put his hands over his rapidly beating heart trying to calm himself.

“Whoa...” Liam said as he looked past Harry’s shoulder. Harry and Louis turned to see what had caught his attention and joined him as he made his way to the display right smack in the centre of the room.

There, displayed vertically in a glass casing, was the King’s sceptre. There was no display materials put up to give a background of the artifacts but there was absolutely no doubt, that that was the sceptre of King Imhotep.

It was made of solid gold from its base all the way to the beautiful triangle translucent stone at the top end of the sceptre where an exquisite gold casing formed an intricate design around the stone to keep it firmly in place. It was absolutely stunning. Even more so than the pictures in the professor’s report.

“Look.” Harry said pointing to the base of the casing that held the stone in place and motioning for Liam to see it closer.

“What is it?” Liam asked curious.

“I’m not sure, but it looks like there’s some sort of design carved into the gold casing. It’s beginning to fade but if you really look at it, you can make it out. And it goes right round the entire casing.”

Liam looked closely and sure enough, there is faint but visible tracing of a design carved around the entire gold casing that held the stone in place. The design was largely made up of a string of various permutations of a square with either a full square or a square with one or two sides missing followed by a string of “V” shapes positioned in one of four different right angles. Some of the shapes had a dot located within the square or V shape, and some without.  It was all very interesting and something that they must have missed or were not able to see in the photographs in the professor’s reports.

“You should take a photo,” Louis said squinting at the sceptre trying to make out the design. “Niall can help blow up the picture so that you can see it better.”

“Good idea,” Harry said as he took his phone out and made his way around the entire display snapping pictures along the way.

 

“Guys, Guys! We have a problem!” Niall’s voice suddenly crackled through their earpiece. “You’ve got to get out of there now!”

“What’s going on Niall?” Louis asked as both Harry and Liam looked at him in alarm.

“The guard is making his way back to the corridor where the exit is. He’s early! I seriously don’t think you guys will have time to slip out, he’s walking that direction now and will probably be there in less than a minute.”

“Dammit!” Louis said cursing. “Quick get the lights,” he said motioning to Liam who immediately ran to the light switch and pulled back the switch to bath the three boys in complete darkness.

Louis turned to open the door. He peeked his head through and could vaguely see the guard standing with his back to the entrance of the corridor. “You guys stay here,” he whispered to Harry and Liam. “I’ll distract him and when either me or Niall say that the coast is clear, you guys make a break for it, okay? Wish me luck.” With that, he turned and walked out the door before Liam and Harry could say anything.

***

“Aww I miss you too honey. Can’t wait to see you when you get back from the States,” Louis said deliberately loud as he stood just inside the corridor with his phone to his ear.

From the corner of his eye he saw the guard turn to peer through the corridor entrance with an angry look on his face and he gave him a curt nod and continued talking on his phone.

“I’m good. Just missing you at the moment,” he said as he eyed the guard coming closer trying to get his attention. “Sorry baby could you excuse me for a bit.”

“What is it?” he asked the guard, putting a little annoyance in his voice at being interrupted.

“You’re in a restricted area,” The guard said firmly.

“Seriously, is there no place on this ship where you can have a private conversation anymore?” he said in disbelief and turning back to his phone with a frown.

“Babe, I gotta go,” Louis said glaring at the guard. “I love you and I’ll speak to you soon.”

“There. Are you happy? Sheesh! Not to mention the fact that it’s so difficult to get a good reception here. And when I finally do, I can’t even speak in peace!” Louis said shaking his head.

“I’m just doing my job.” The guard said as he put his hands behind Louis to direct him towards the exit.

“Yes I can see that,” Louis said kicking the cigarette stub on the ground that the guard had quickly tried to dispose of the minute he heard Louis on the phone.

The guard looked at him red face and looked like he was about to come up with an excuse when Louis interrupted him and said, “Oh relax.” He put his own arm around the guard and walked with him outside the corridor onto the deck. “I tell you what, I won’t tell anyone, if you could share and light me up one. I could really use a fag right about now,” he said holding out his hands making sure that the guard’s back was towards the exit. “Well come on now. That’s not too much to ask is it?” he said and looking up at the cctv camera and signalling with a slight movement of his head, as the guard fiddled around for his pack of cigarettes.

“Now guys! You’ve got to leave now!” Niall’s urgent voice suddenly came through over Harry and Liam’s inner ear monitor where they sat silently in the display room immersed in darkness. It wasn’t a moment too soon because for the last few seconds they sat rooted clutching each other and holding their breath in fear as they could hear somebody keying in the pin code to the front entrance door followed by a curse as whoever it was failed in his attempts. “Oh shit,” Niall had said when he saw the guard on the front door duty getting up to open the door to the display room.

They were truly stuck between a rock and a hard place and Niall was trying desperately to monitor both exits to keep a look out for Louis and his little distraction ploy and to make sure that the guard on the front door duty didn’t get in until Liam and Harry were safely out of the room.

The guard was about to do his third attempt and Niall knew that if he keyed in the pin and it failed again, the alarm would trigger and a locking mechanism would override the key card system he had programmed, leaving Liam and Harry truly stuck.

Louis’ green light therefore came at the most perfect time because just as Liam and Harry quietly made their exit and closed the door behind them, the guard started his third attempt of the key card system making sure he got each number correct and giving Niall the opportunity to quickly change the pin codes to its original setting. He had just pressed enter to confirm the change when the guard finished keying in the final number and the red blinking light finally turned green.

At the same time, Liam and Harry were making their way quietly through the corridor exit to the deck. They heard Louis’ voice talking to the guard about god knows what and chanced a quick peak only to catch Louis’ eye as he made sure the guard’s back was to the exit of the corridor.  Taking the opportunity, Liam and Harry quickly snuck out onto the deck and made a quick getaway back the opposite direction.

 

 

“Oh God, I can’t believe we did that!” Liam said as both him and Harry burst into the cabin where Niall was.

“Are you guys okay?” Niall asked turning to them. “That was awesome, right?” He continued with a big grin on his face.

“That was SICK!” Harry said giving Niall a big hug and lifting him off the ground as the blond broke into laughter just as Louis walked in.

“We did it boys!” Louis said as he dragged Liam who was standing at the side to join Niall and Harry in a four way hug.  “That was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.”

“You really saved our butt there Louis,” Liam said after they broke away from the hug.  “I honestly almost peed my pants. I thought we were done for.”  He plopped down on the sofa. “I seriously need a lie down now,” he said laughing. “Can’t believe we got away with it!”

“Well we did!” Niall said in glee. “I’ve set all the cctv feeds and the key card system back to normal. There’s absolutely no evidence of us ever being there. I’d say we did pretty good for our first B&E,” Niall said still grinning.

“First?” Harry said with a laugh. “I think I’ve had my share of breaking and entering to last me a lifetime. The criminal life is not for me,” he said as he plopped down on top of Liam on the sofa ignoring the loud “oof” from him, as Niall and Louis followed suit next to them.

***

“See this is why we shouldn’t encourage him,” Harry said elbowing Louis as they both looked at Liam who was sitting across the table with several pieces of paper scattered in front of him and a plate full of barely touched food.

“Once he’s in work mode, it’s really difficult to get him out of it and he just gets really, really boring,” Harry said pouting.

“You should have warned me. How am I supposed to know these things?” Louis said turning to Harry.  “I wouldn’t have suggested the B & E if I knew _this_ would be the aftermath.” He gestured to Liam with a nod of his head.

“Yes, you would,” Niall interrupted, putting down a plate full of food as he joined them at the table.

“Yeah, Okay. I would have,” Louis conceded with a shrug. “But doesn’t mean this one has to be all serious and boring now.” 

“I can hear you, you know,” Liam said without looking up from the papers.

“He speaks!” Louis exclaimed as Liam finally looked up.

“Aww, come on Liam. Tonight’s the cruise’s gala performance and dance. Everybody’s gonna be there. You can’t stay cooped up in the room and not go,” Louis said as he grabbed the papers Liam was holding and held them away from him.

“I will, I’ll come. Just later. After I’m done going through this,” Liam said as he tugged back the paper from Louis grasp.

“I’ve heard that before,” Harry said with a scoff. 

“I’m sorry it’s just, I feel like we’re so close. Like on the very verge of solving this thing,” Liam said frowning down at the drawings of the design.

“Well then maybe you need to take a page from my book bro and take a little break,” Harry said leaning in towards Liam. “Like I told you I’ve seen those designs before but for the life of me I just can’t remember at the moment. And honestly, I think taking a step back from it for a while is the very thing I need to clear my mind. Hopefully then, it’ll come back to me. You should try it.”

 “I know,” Liam said making a face, “but I just can’t switch off that easily. I’ll be horrible company.”

Harry gave a huge sigh as he shook his head and leaned back. “Give it up, Louis. I’ve seen him like this before and believe me when I say nothing can pry him away when he’s like this,” he said as he got up to leave.

“Darn it Liam. Well then solve the bloody thing quick, and join us. Pretty sure we’ll be at the gala however late you get done,”  Louis said getting up to join Harry as Liam looked on apologetically.

“I’ll join you guys later,” Niall said nodding at Louis and Harry with a mouthful of food.  “So what have you got so far?” he asked Liam between bites as he took a look at the drawings of the designs Liam was staring at.

“Ugh. Nothing. Absolutely nothing,” Liam said leaning back on his chair frustrated. “Except I just know that there’s something there but I just can’t place my finger on it.”

Niall shrugged sympathetically “Bummer. I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon. Love the pattern though. Looks like some cool code or something,” he said as he gave Liam back the paper. “Did you want the rest of those fries?” He continued as he pointed to Liam’s plate.

“What did you say?” Liam said staring at Niall.

“I said, did you want these fries?” Niall repeated as he reached over to pull the plate towards him but stopped mid movement when he saw Liam looking at him like he had grown another head.

“Um, Oh-kay. If you feel that strongly about it,” Niall said a little bit alarmed at Liam’s reaction as he pushed the plate slowly back to Liam.

Liam suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders startling him. “Niall! You’re a freaking genius!” he said as he gave a loud smacking kiss to Niall’s forehead and hurriedly walked away leaving Niall blinking in his wake.

Niall watched him leave in confusion but shrugged after a beat as he pulled back the plate of fries towards him and started to heartily dig in.

***

 _Holy shit_ , Liam thought as he leaned back in his chair looking at the array of papers in front of him. The answer was right there! It was right in front of him. He couldn’t believe it!

Niall’s passing comment about the designs looking like code was spot on and he couldn’t believe how everything just fit into place after that breakthrough.  He knew that with every code, there must be a key to break it and that key to deciphering everything was staring them right in the face all this time. Now he understood why the “tic tac toe” symbol and the “X” symbol couldn’t fit anywhere. They weren’t your average ancient Egyptian characters because they were actually keys to decrypting the whole thing!

It had taken him a while but he had divided the designs into two separate lines. One containing the pattern of the different permutation of a square with either a full square or a square with one or two sides missing and the second line of code contained a pattern of “V” shapes positioned in one of four different angles.

After numerous tries and errors and going through practically a whole writing pad full of paper, he had discovered that the square shapes represented the different characters of the Egyptian alphabets, with the first pattern, which is a backwards mirror image of an “L” representing not only the top left hand corner of the tic tac toe frame but also the first letter of the alphabet. This was followed by a three sided square with the top line missing representing the top middle portion of the tic tac toe frame as well as the second letter of the alphabet and so on and so forth. This went on until you reached the last of the tic tac toe frame after nine characters after which it started back again to the top left hand corner pattern but this time with a dot located within the said pattern which indicated that it represented the next round of alphabets starting from the 10th character.

The second line of code, which comprised the “V” shaped patterns on the other hand, used the “X” symbol as the key to decrypt it where he discovered that instead of alphabets, it represented numbers.  Similar to the tic tac toe frame, he broke down the “X” symbol into four different patterns starting with the pattern of the “V” which was the top part of the “X” symbol which represented the number 1. This was followed by the “<” symbol which represented the number 2 and so on and so forth until you reached the last of the symbol in the “X” frame which was the “>” symbol representing the number 4. After that it started back again to the pattern of the “V” but this time with a dot located in the pattern which indicated that it represented the next round of numbers, i.e. the number 5, etc.

He looked at the piece of paper containing the decrypted code in front of him in excitement. He had to tell Harry.

***

Harry was dancing with a beautiful blonde who had her arms around his neck and who was seemingly lost in the music. Niall and Louis were on the other side of the room having a somewhat lively game of pool against each other and their respective pool partners. He stole a quick glance at his watch and saw that it was quickly approaching one in the morning. Despite the late hour, the party showed no signs of dying down and the band on stage were still playing full swing and the room was packed. Even a large number of the archaeology conference members were still there mostly seated around the poker and gambling tables which were at the back end of the large ballroom. He smiled down to his blonde companion and thought how different the cruise had turned out to be than what he had expected. He really was having the time of his life. Eventually he would tell Liam that, _but not just yet_ , he thought with a smirk. His musings were interrupted when he was suddenly grabbed by the arms and dragged away to a more quieter part of the room after a quick “I’m sorry” was muttered to his ‘date’ by whoever had grabbed him.

He turned around annoyed to see a breathless Liam in front of him. “What the heck Liam?!” he exclaimed drawing back his arms from Liam’s grasped. “You really need to stop doing that!”

“I’m sorry,” Liam said quickly, “But Harry! I figured it out! I can’t believe we didn’t see it, it was just there, right before our eyes, and, and earlier when we were eating, Niall said something and things just clicked and the whole–”

“Whoa! Whoa there, Liam. Slow the hell down. You’re not even making sense,” Harry said putting both hands on Liam’s shoulders. “But here’s the thing though. Whatever you discovered, it's great and all and I knew you would anyway, but I’m pretty sure it can wait until the morning, right?” Harry continued, glancing back to his date who was standing and frowning at the two brothers.

“What? But Harry, you’ve got to...” Liam started but was interrupted by Harry.

“No Liam, stop. You keep doing this. So just stop, okay?” he said with a frown. “You have your idea of fun and I respect that and all but I have mine. I mean I came on this cruise with you willingly already, so please let me have this one night.  One night. It’s not gonna kill you, all right?” Harry said moving his hands from Liam’s shoulders to cup his face.

“But...”

“No ‘buts,’ Liam. I’m serious. Just this one night. One!” He said raising his index finger to show what he meant and slowly walked backwards before he turned around to join his date.

“Dammit,” Liam muttered as he watched Harry disappear into the crowd.

***

Liam was pacing the floor ragged. He was still high on adrenaline and there was absolutely no way he was going to just turn in and sleep after that breakthrough! He was in no mood to party either, not when the discovery was the only thing he could think about at the moment.

“ _Ugh_!” he said fisting his knuckles in frustration as he continued to pace. He knew he could be an absolutely pain about things when he gets like this but really, it doesn’t happen all that often. _Does it?_ he questioned himself. Okay, so maybe he just did the same thing the other day when they found out about the sceptre being a part of the museum display. _Oh man_ , he thought looking back at the many other times he had made Harry drop everything just so he could have his way and more often than not, Harry did. Like going on the cruise with him and sacrificing a good chunk of his summer holidays for Liam, and waking him up at wee hours of the morning on said cruise to share a random discovery. “Shit,”  he said to himself as he sat down heavily on his bed. If he were Harry, he would probably be pissed off with him as well.

It’s just that he honestly could not help it.  He wears his heart on his sleeve and when he’s excited, he’s just freaking excited and of all the things to be excited about, this... _This_ _, is definitely one worth getting excited over_!, he thought looking at the papers strewn on the table. He just really needed to get this out of his system and share it with someone. He thought about finding Louis and Niall but remembered he saw them briefly at the pool table as he was talking to Harry. He decided against it because why would they drop their entire night of fun just for him. If Harry wouldn’t do it, why would they?

The only other option was the Professor. He looked at his watch and winced when it read a quarter past one in the morning. Yikes, maybe not the best idea. But then again, if he were the Professor, he was pretty sure he would be just as excited to hear about the breakthrough. It is his life’s work after all.

He quickly checked the directory in the conference booklet for the room numbers of all the conference members and grabbed the papers and stuffed it in his pockets. Screw it. He was going to go tell the Professor.

***

He was trying to psych himself up to knock on the door when he heard some noises like someone moving in the room. _Okay, so at least the Professor was awake_ , he thought with relief as he finally rapped his knuckles on the door frame.

After what seemed to be ages, Professor Kingston slowly opened the door and peered his head through.

“Um Liam,” the Professor said looking at him in a weird mixture of surprise and something else he couldn’t sense. “I can’t really...”

“I know it’s late and I’m so sorry,” Liam apologized, interrupting the Professor. “It’s just that we found something! Something really big, about the whereabouts of the treasure,” he said rambling on before the Professor could say anything more. I’m pretty sure you’ll want to hear this,” he continued but stopped abruptly when he saw the look on the Professor’s face as his eyes appeared to send out a silent warning and plea for Liam to leave.

“Oh... I– I’m sorry. I hope I wasn’t interrupting something,” Liam said uncertainly.  “Maybe I’ll speak to you tomorrow then,” he said as he took a tentative step back but was startled as the door suddenly swung wide open and Damian, the Professor’s assistant stepped around the Professor to suddenly grab Liam by the arm to pull him into the room.

“No actually, you will speak to us now,” Damian said menacingly as he closed the door behind them.

“What’s going on?” Liam asked, confused. He looked between the Professor and Damian. There was another guy behind Damian, someone he had never seen before and he did not have a good feeling about the situation at all.

“Leave him out of this Damian,” the Professor said as he moved to Liam but was held back by the other guy who suddenly raised his other hand which was brandishing a gun.

“A little too late for that,” Damian said raising an eyebrow as he looked at Liam who gasped and immediately backed himself up against the wall as he stared in horror at the gun the guy was holding.

“Besides, I’m interested to hear what this ‘big’ thing is that he discovered,” Damian said as he grabbed the neck of Liam’s sweater in his fist.

Before he could really process what was going on, he saw the Professor lunge forward at Damian only to be grabbed by the man holding the gun. Without thinking twice, Liam resorted to instinct and raised his knee to give a sharp kick to Damian’s groin before turning to open the door and making a desperate run for it.

***

He ran as fast as his legs could take him but he had no idea where he was going. He looked back and saw that the guy that was holding the gun was in hot pursuit somewhere behind him.

 _Where the hell was everyone?_ He cursed as he turned a corner and looked frantically around. He saw a door to a stairwell but found that it was locked. He tried knocking on several more doors after that in desperation but it was like the entire ship was deserted.

The next door he tried did however open but it turned out to be a maintenance closet. He rushed in anyway and quickly shut the door behind him and crouched down in the darkness. With shaking hands, he took out his phone and pressed the speed dial for Harry’s number.

***

Harry was laughing at the joke his date was telling him as they made their way to the bar to get another drink. The ballroom was still packed and the live band was still playing despite the late hour. It was like the entire occupancy of the ship was at the gala dance. _Well except for Liam_ , Harry thought with a shake of his head. It was honestly a fun night with a lot of live performances and even some games played amongst the guests. Liam was really missing out but it was his choice after all. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the vibrating in his pockets. He took his phone out and Liam’s name came flashing on the screen. _Man, what part of wanting this one night to himself didn’t Liam understand?_ Harry thought frowning at the screen. Tomorrow was just a couple of hours away and then he would be a good brother and pay all his god forsaken attention to Liam. For now though, he really needed another drink. He switched off his phone and headed to join Louis and Niall who were already at the bar.

***

“Please, please answer the phone Harry,” Liam whispered into the mouthpiece as he listened to the dial tone. When the call came to an end after remaining unanswered he frantically pressed redial. This time he was met with a recording service asking him to leave a message. “Shit!” Liam said to himself in frustration. He could hear footsteps outside and he crouched further into the darkness willing himself to disappear into it. In a quick thought, he slipped his phone into one of his socks near his ankles and hastily took the papers from his pockets and discarded them. The footsteps came nearer and stopped right in front of the door. He could hear his heart pounding and he swallowed in fear as he saw the doorknob turn slowly.

Before whoever it was could open the door fully, Liam jumped and pushed the door forward with a burst of adrenaline knocking the person behind the door off his feet. He then slipped past and ran out as fast as he could, panting furiously as he chanced a quick glance as the gunman hurriedly got back on his feet to continue his pursuit.

He wasn’t sure which part of the ship he was in but he knew it was nowhere near where the guest cabins were. All the doors had some sign or the other on them indicating they were somewhere near the office and admin part of the ship. He had tried and knocked frantically at several doors but was met with silence. As he turned a corner, he crashed head on into somebody who was coming out of a room that had an official sign that said, “Captain’s Office.”

“Oh my god.” Liam said climbing to his feet. He recognised the man as the captain of the ship and sure enough, he had a pin on his shirt that simply read, “Captain.” “Oh god. Thank goodness,” Liam said out of breath as he grabbed a hold of the captain’s arms.

“Captain! Sir, you’ve gotta help me. There’s this guy, with a gun, and– and he’s after me and Professor Kingston, you have to help, please!” he pleaded at the Captain who was looking at him in alarm.

“Alright son, calm down. Come into my room with me,” the Captain said guiding a panic-stricken Liam as he looked around to see if anyone was in fact after the boy.

“You have to call for security, or backup or something. They have guns!” Liam said desperately as the Captain guided him to some seats which he refused to take.

“I will, son. I believe you. Just calm down, please.” The Captain picked up the receiver of the phone on his table. “We need security in here quick. We have a situation,” he said to the receiver. “Help is on its way,” the Captain said putting down the phone and reaching in the drawer of his desk to pull out a gun of his own.  “Stay put,” He said cocking his gun and moving to the door as Liam stepped backwards further into the office.

A rap on the door startled him but the Captain signaled with his hands telling him to keep quiet as the Captain slowly opened the door and started talking to who apparently was the ship’s security. After a while the Captain opened the door fully and two armed men stepped in. Liam heaved a sigh of relieve to see that help had arrived but his relief was stopped short when a third man suddenly walked into the room. It was the gun man! The guy that was after him!

Liam stumbled backwards knocking down some of the items on the Captain’s table as he desperately tried to get away and get the Captain’s attention but before he could say anything, the Captain closed the door and raised his gun and pointed it directly at Liam’s head. “I guess we really do have a situation here, don’t we?”

***

“This kid walked in when we were with the Professor,” the gunman said to the Captain, “I’d say he’s seen a little too much.”

“This was not the plan, Bruno,”  the Captain said in anger.  “It was supposed to be quick and clean. Get the Professor, get the artifact and get out. There’s not supposed to be any casualties.”

“A little too late for that,” a voice came from the doorway.  It was Damian.

“What are you talking about?” the Captain said turning to Damian.

“The Professor’s dead,” Damian said grimly stealing a glance at Liam who let out a loud gasp as he backed himself even further to the wall.

“I didn’t touch him. He just started clutching his heart and collapsed. I thought he was faking it, but turned out it was a legit heart attack. He is actually dead.”

“God dammit, Damian!” the Captain said letting out a tirade of swear words.  “What the hell are we going to tell the boss? He is gonna have our heads.”

“The boss wants answers as to the whereabouts of the treasure. We may not have the Professor but there is someone here who I’m pretty sure knows as much if not more than what the Professor knows,” he said.

“Who?” the Captain asked confused.

“Him,” Damian pointed to Liam who stared at the men in shocked silence as all the blood drained from his face.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Niall opened the door to let a sleepy Harry in, who walked straight to the couch and plopped himself down. “Oh man, this hangover is killer,” he said covering his eyes with one arm.

“Tell me about it” Louis said from the kitchen. “I’m making some special juice concoction to help with just that. I’ll make you a shot.”

“Please,” Harry said with a groan. “Liam up yet?” he asked still lying on the couch.

“Huh?” both Niall and Louis said looking at each other in confusion.

Harry propped himself on his elbows to look over the back of the couch to the kitchen. “I thought he crashed here with you guys last night. He wasn’t in the room when I got back.”

“Nope. Not here,” Niall said shaking his head. “You sure he wasn’t in the room? Maybe he got up early and went to the gym or something.”

“I got back at about 4:30 in the morning. I think that’s a little too early for a gym visit,” Harry said getting up into a sitting position on the couch.

“Maybe, he got a little action last night,” Louis said wagging his eyebrows. “...Or maybe not,” he continued quickly after the disbelieving look Harry gave him.

Harry got out his phone and groaned when he remembered he had switched it off.

“I could have sworn I saw him in the gala for a little while last night? Was he there?” Niall asked whilst sipping his juice. 

“Yeah he was for a little while. He came to tell me about this big breakthrough about the treasure.”

“Wow! Awesome, what was it?” Louis said in excitement.

“What was what?” Harry said frowning at his phone.

“The breakthrough Liam discovered, what was it?”

“Huh?” Harry said finally looking up. “Um, I don’t really know,” he winced. “I told him that it was a bad time and that I’d listen to him about it tomorrow, well today.”

“Oooh, mate. Seriously? He must have discovered something big to come all the way to the gala to tell you.”

 “Yeah, I guess it must have been pretty big,” Harry said with a groan as he felt a sliver of guilt settle in.

“Well drink up,” Louis said handing Harry his juice shot. “It’s almost noon so maybe we’ll see him at the lunch room.”

***

Louis, Niall and Harry walked onto the main deck and were met with a large gathering of people. Curious, they peered through the heads of the crowd and saw some guys in what seemed to be coastguards uniform running around carrying medical equipment.

“What the hell is going on?” Louis said as they wormed their way further into the crowd. 

Harry’s heart lurched in panic as he saw a stretcher being brought through. “Who is that?” he asked frantically at the guy next to him. “Please tell me who that is?” he said as he tried to break through to the front of the crowd to get a better look.

“Harry! Harry, calm down,” Louis said turning to put a hand on Harry’s shoulders. “It’s not Liam, okay?” he said standing on his tip toes as he looked past the heads of the people in front of him. “It’s an older guy but I can’t quite make out whoever it is though.”

Harry let out a sigh of relief as he tried to make his heartbeat slow back to normal. “Then who is it?” he asked as he looked at where Louis was pointing. Some guys in emergency coastguard service uniform were carrying a body on a stretcher to an awaiting boat.

“It’s Professor Kingston, son,” said the guy next to him, whom he recognised as another conference member. “Apparently he had a heart attack.”

“Oh no,” Harry said as he looked on in shock.

“You okay?” Niall said as he watched Harry’s face drain at the news.

“He’s the professor that gave Liam and me the assignment,” he said as he slowly turned to look at Niall and Louis who were both looking at him with a concerned look.

***

“Where the heck is he? Why can’t I get through?” Harry said looking at his phone in frustration. “Oh no! You don’t think Liam was with the professor when it happened, do you? He would have been so freaked!” Harry said suddenly looking at Niall and Louis in alarmed.

“Relax Harry. I’m sure he’s fine,” Louis said calmingly. “Maybe he’s at the lunchroom or the library or something. Let’s not panic, okay? Let’s break up and each go search for him. I’ll take the top deck; Niall you check the conference rooms and function rooms as well as the café and restaurants; Harry you take the lower deck and we’ll meet back at our cabin in about an hour.”

***

 “I’m sorry. I couldn’t find him,” Niall said apologetically at the crestfallen look on Harry’s face.

Both Harry and Louis had reached the meeting spot a couple minutes earlier, neither of them having had any luck with finding Liam.

“Oh God...” Harry said putting his hands in his head as he leaned forward on the table he was sitting at.

“What if something happened to him?” Harry said looking up at Niall and Louis who looked at each other worryingly.

“I shouldn’t have left him alone. I should have listened to him,” Harry said getting up to start pacing. “I’m an idiot. He called me last night and I switched off the bloody phone!” he said trying to hold back tears that were threatening to fall. “It must have been something urgent and I was too busy bloody flirting and having a good time!” he continued, his voice breaking.

“Harry, don’t,” Louis said putting an arm around Harry’s shoulders trying to comfort him. “We don’t know anything bad happened, okay? Please let’s not panic.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just, I have a really horrible feeling about this and if anything happened to him, I’ll– I’ll never forgive myself,”  He said as he slumped back down on the seat.

“We’ll find him Harry,” Louis said as he squeezed Harry’s shoulder. “We’ll go tell the Captain. He’ll have better resources to help us search, okay?” he said as Harry nodded.

***

 “When did you last see him?” the Captain asked Harry and Louis who were seated in his office.

“Last night at the gala. He, well, he left earlier than we did,” Harry said looking at Louis who nodded his head in encouragement for Harry to continue. “And he wasn’t in the room when I came back but I didn’t think anything of it. But he hasn’t turned up and we’ve been trying to search for him the whole day and we have no idea where he is. It’s just not like him,” Harry answered.

The Captain looked at his watch with a frown as it showed that it was only 2 o’clock in the afternoon.

“Hmm. So what you’re saying is that he didn’t come back to your room after a night of partying and you’ve been looking for him all this time and now that it's two in the afternoon you want me to send a search party around the ship to look for him?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well... yeah,” Harry said looking pleadingly at Louis.

“Sir,” Louis said coming to Harry’s help. “It’s just that his brother wouldn’t just disappear like that. He’s one of those responsible types that don’t go crazy on a night out partying. And honestly he wasn’t even partying last night. He was just at the gala for a little while, and…”

“Okay, boys, listen. Today has not been a good day. We’ve just had a death on the ship. I’ve spent the entire morning on the phone with coastguards and fielding questions from just about everyone.  There is so much paperwork to be sorted and calls to be made, I can’t just drop everything and channel my manpower to go look for a teenager who has been missing for only a couple of hours after a night out partying! It’s a huge ship! Believe me when I say that more often than not, they always turn up somewhere, a little hungover, but otherwise, fine. Unless at least 48 hours have passed or you have any evidence to show me otherwise, I am not treating this as a missing persons matter.”

“Forty eight hours!” Harry exclaimed as he got up to his feet. “Are you kidding me?” he asked in disbelief. “Anything can happen in forty eight hours! He could be hurt! And I know my brother and he’s not just shacked up with someone nursing a bloody hangover and…”

“And you’re right, Captain,” Louis said putting a firm hand on Harry’s shoulder motioning for him to stop. “Sorry, we’re just a little concerned, as you must understand, but you’re absolutely right.” Louis got up from his seat.  

“What?” Harry said looking at him incredulously.

“Listen to him, Harry. He’s the captain of this ship and he’s had a lot of experience dealing with these things. Liam will probably turn up somewhere sooner than later. We are on a ship after all and there’s not that many places he could disappear to,” Louis said giving him a warning look as he quickly walked Harry towards the door of the Captain’s office.

“We’re really sorry to bother you, Captain,” he said as he led Harry out of the room and closed the door behind him.

***

 “What the hell was that!” Harry exclaimed as they burst into the cabin to a surprised Niall who was seated in front of his computer.

“We’ve got a problem,” Louis said ignoring Harry’s outburst.

“Damn right we have a problem,” Harry said ripping his arms away from Louis who had practically dragged him all the way from the Captain’s room.

“No, listen,” Louis said turning Harry by the shoulders to face him to get his full attention.

“Does this look familiar to you?” he asked holding up a black and yellow Batman lanyard.

“Hey. That’s Liam’s,” Niall said from his seat as Harry looked at it in confusion.

“Exactly,” Louis said as he continued. “I found it peeking out from under the Captain’s desk,” he said looking at both Harry and Niall who exchanged confused looks.

“The Captain was lying.” 

***

Harry looked at the lanyard in his hands. It was unmistakably Liam’s. It even had his initials on it written in black ink. It was broken though and the thumbdrive it was attached to was no longer there. He couldn’t understand it.  What was it doing in the Captain’s room? What the hell was going on?

His thoughts were interrupted by Niall who motioned them over to the computer.

“I think you guys definitely want to see this,” he said as Harry and Louis crowded around him. “I wanted to tell you before but I didn’t get the chance, but earlier when I checked the seminar and conference rooms for Liam, I saw that the museum exhibition had been officially opened so I went to check it just in case Liam was there. Well, he wasn’t, obviously, but what I found weird was that there was no display in the middle of the museum like you guys said. So I looked around for what looked like a sceptre just in case they moved it but I couldn’t find it. I finally asked one of the guys in charge of the exhibition and he just looked at me in confusion and said I must be mistaken because it’s not part of the display. He even gave me this little official booklet that lists down all the items as well as a brief historical background of each artifact and it’s not on here,” he said handing the pamphlet to Harry and Louis who flipped through it.

“And get this,” Niall said turning the screen of his computer to both Harry and Louis to see.  “This is the list in the ship’s inventory of all the items brought on to the ship. Do you see something missing?”

“Whoa,” Louis said in confusion.  “That’s not the same list you printed out two days ago. The sceptre isn’t there!”

“Exactly,” Niall said. “Somebody changed the inventory. Whoever did it had to have some knowledge about breaking into complex security system, like, well, like yours truly OR someone had access to the ship’s system without having to break in.”

“Like somebody working from the inside?” Louis asked looking at Niall.

“Yup,” Niall said. “So basically, we’ve got a missing ancient artifact and the only people who actually know about the fact it is missing right now is us! Well us and the people who took it.”

“And Professor Kingston,” Harry added quietly.

“You mean the Professor that just died?” Niall asked looking up at Harry. “How do you know he knows?”

“Well he kinda hinted at it to me and Liam. I didn’t think much of it then, but I’m pretty sure he knew.”

“And now he’s dead,” Louis said carefully, exchanging looks with Niall and Harry.

“You guys don’t think this is connected in some way with Liam being missing, do you?” Harry asked as the dread of the situation settled deeper in his stomach.

“As much as I hate to say it, I think it’s too much of a coincidence for it not to be,” Louis said grimly as Harry started pacing again trying to control his increasing panic “Wasn’t the missing thumbdrive the one containing all of the Professor’s findings?” Louis asked slowly as Harry’s eyes widened in realisation.

“Can we check the security cameras for last night’s footage?” Harry asked suddenly turning back to Niall.

“Yeah, great idea! Just give me a couple of minutes to bring it up,” Niall said as he typed furiously on the computer.

“Deleted,” Niall said after a couple of minutes as he pushed back his chair. “Every single one of them. A good hour or so worth of footage is bloody deleted. Whoever did this means serious business.”

***

Captain’s Cabin

“Is the brother going to be a problem?” the voice at the other end of the line asked as the Captain rubbed his face in frustration.

“No, I doubt it. I’ve bought us some time. At least until we dock the day after tomorrow. After that, I want my money and I am out.”

“Fine. Just make sure the brother and his friends don’t cause any trouble in the meantime. If they’re anything like this kid here than you better keep an eagle eye out for them.

“What do you mean?” asked the Captain.

“When we reached shore and carried him into the truck, we found his phone tucked in his socks inside his ankle. Very smart, I have to say. He almost got away with it cause we missed it the first time around when we were checking his pockets. So keep a lookout on those boys. Time is running out and we cannot let anyone get in our way.

“Yeah okay,” the Captain sighed and put down the phone.

***

 “I don’t even think the artifact's still on the ship to be honest,” Niall said grimly.

“Why do you say that?” Harry asked looking at him anxiously.

“This looks like an inside job. Or at least someone had help from the inside. If the Captain is in on it, then they could easily have arranged for a boat to smuggle it out under cover of darkness.”

“But what about Liam? You don’t suppose he saw something he shouldn’t and they did something to him, do you?” Harry asked in horror.

“What’s Liam’s number?” Niall asked urgently distracting Harry in his thoughts.

“What?”

“His phone number, what is it?” he said impatiently.

Harry looked at him in confusion but gave Niall the number. “I’ve tried calling him. I just can’t get through. There isn’t even a dial tone.”

“I’m not calling him,” Niall said not looking up from the computer. “I’m tracking his GPS, or at least the last reading of his GPS. Maybe we can find out whether he’s still on this ship.”

“You can do that?” Harry asked wide eyed as he moved quickly to sit himself next to Niall and Louis who were intently looking at the screen trying to figure out what it was he was seeing.

Niall had brought up a satellite map of the area to detect the GPS signal which matched that of Liam’s phone. “Here it is,” Niall said pointing it out. “There’s no current signal coming from the phone but this one’s the most recent signal that can be tracked. It’s a couple of hours old.”

“Oh My God,” Harry said his heart clenching painfully. The signal came from land. About an hour from where the ship was currently located.

***

 “We need to call the police,” Harry said frantically. “Or get help from someone, anyone Louis! We can’t sit on this ship and do nothing. They have him. And God knows what they’ve done to him or what they’re going to do to him. We need to get him help quick.”

“Harry’s right. We need to get help. Maybe we should call the police,” Niall said.

“I know, I know. I’m just thinking. It’s just that, if the Captain is in on it, I’m pretty sure there are others on the ship that are in on it too, right? Just think about it. When the Captain came on board to take over, he brought on a whole new team of people with him. Including his own security team. What if they’re all in on it? As long as we are on this ship and they know that we know something, then I’m pretty sure that would make us a target as well, right? Also, just think about it a little bit more. Harry, sorry for saying this but if Liam saw something he shouldn’t have seen, they could have easily offed him and thrown him overboard or something. But they didn’t. They apparently brought him to shore with them. Is it just me or does anyone else think there must be more to this?”

“Maybe it’s got something to do with what he found out,” Niall said piping in. “Maybe it was a really big discovery and he did find out where the treasure is. That’s some pretty valuable information I’m sure a lot of people would kill for.” Niall winced at his poor choice of words. “Sorry,” He muttered at Harry who had turned pale white.

“Oh God. Then what do we do?” Harry said weakly.

“We need to find out what this big discovery of his was and get off this ship quick. And then we get help,” Louis said putting a hand on Harry’s shoulder as he guided the boy to sit down before his legs gave way.

“I could say I have a family emergency and needed to get off the ship and take the next flight back home from the nearest airport or something. I doubt the Captain would want to speak to my father to verify and I’m pretty sure he can’t say no to that. You guys can say you’re accompanying me to make sure I’m okay and that I get on the flight safely and that you’ll join back the cruise once we dock in Port Said.”

“Okay. Great idea Niall. But when do we do this?” Louis said looking at both Niall and Harry.

“As soon as possible,” Harry said pleadingly. “We need to get help and find him quick.”

“Okay, I’ll get my dad to call the official satellite phone in the ship just so it seems a bit more legit. I can tell the Captain it’s because he needed a clear line since that line is way clearer than your average mobile phone.”

“What are you gonna tell your Dad?” Louis asked.

“Well nothing really. I’ll just catch up with him like usual but the Captain needn’t know that.”

“Okay great. You make the necessary arrangement with your Dad and the Captain. Harry, let’s go to your room and get all of Liam’s notes and see whether we can figure out what he found.”

***

“Wow!” Louis said looking at the disarray of papers on the table as well as in the waste basket next to it.  “He must have really been onto something,” he said as he looked at the notes and drawings on the papers.

“Oh God,” Harry said looking at the state of the room. “I didn’t even notice,” he groaned. He had come back to the room pretty buzzed and had plopped straight into bed. The only thing he computed was that Liam wasn’t in the bed next to him before he fell asleep.

“Come on, let’s go through this quick. We haven’t got that long,” Louis said interrupting his thoughts and shoving some papers in his hands for him to look.

“What the hell am I looking at here?” Louis asked confused as he turned the paper he was looking at upside down and sideways.

“No way!” Harry said as took the paper away from Louis hand. “No freaking way!”

“What?” Louis asked. “What is it?”

“These are codes!” Harry said pointing at the two lines of designs that Liam had copied from the picture of the sceptre that they had taken. “And these two symbols right here, the ones that didn’t fit anywhere, are the codebreakers! Look,” Harry said pointing at the piece of paper. “He figured out that this line of code right here, represents the Egyptian alphabet, and this line right here represents numbers!”

“Well then what does it say?” Louis asked excitedly.

“Ugh. I don’t know, I can’t find the paper with the final findings. He must have taken it with him.” Harry said looking at Louis. “I can figure it out though, just give me awhile,” Harry said as he turned to the table and started work on the code.

***

 “Got it!” Harry said to an impatient Louis who had kept himself busy helping Harry pack a little bag of both his and Liam’s stuff for their trip.

“This mean anything to you?” Harry asked handing a piece of paper with a bunch of numbers on them.

Louis looked at it, eyes wide. “Are those coordinates?”

“It sure looks like it to me,” Harry said nodding in amazement. “I can’t believe it. If correct, then I’m pretty sure those coordinates would lead us right to the treasure. We need to check it.”

“What does the alphabet one say?” Louis said pointing to the other piece of paper in Harry’s hands.

“I’m not quite sure how it fits in just yet, but the code spells out this.” Harry said handing Louis the paper.

“ _Only time will tell,_ ” it read.

***

“What the heck does that mean?”

“I have no clue but it seems to fit in with the whole theme of things somehow, don’t you think? Speaking of which, I think I remember where I’ve seen these codes before,” Harry said suddenly getting up and rifling through his luggage. He took out a book and flipped through the pages before he stopped at one.

“I knew it!” Harry said as he turned the book for Louis to see. “See this. This is an amulet they found a couple of decades ago which was discovered to be from around King Imhotep's era,” he said pointing to the page. Louis took the book to see that Harry was pointing at a photo of a beautiful intricately designed amulet. In the middle of the amulet was a luminous stone in the form of a triangle surrounded by a sun shaped solid gold casing. Around the casing however was a barely visible intricate carving of the exact same design as the codes found on the sceptre!

“Whoa!” Louis said looking up at Harry. “It’s exactly the same pattern, isn’t it? Even the stone in the middle is exactly the same as that in the sceptre,” he said in awe to Harry who nodded in agreement.

“It is. And I think I know why. I remembered this because we studied it as part of the assignment. It was about ancient Egyptian artifacts and this was one of them. For a long time, the amulet was thought to be just one of the many riches found from the era but I’m thinking now, that it belonged to the Imhotep family. He had a daughter who was said to have run away to marry a commoner and left all her riches behind. Apparently, the only thing she took with her was a necklace that the King had given her. When this amulet was found, nobody linked it to the royal family because it wasn’t found anywhere near the Kingdom.  Looking at this though, I’m thinking this definitely belongs to King Imhotep's family.”

“Wow,” Louis said his mind racing at the information.  “Okay, let’s just take a step back here. Other than the fact that this amulet also contains the codes or the key, so to speak, to the location of the actual treasure, do you suppose it’s also the actual key to finding the treasure?” he asked turning to Harry.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked looking at him confused.

“I don’t know, it’s just that, there’s a triangle shaped stone in _both_ the sceptre and the amulet and both have the location of the treasure. It must mean something right? Maybe it’s something you need to unlock the treasure or something. Otherwise don’t you think it’s too much of a coincidence?”

“Whoa. You really have been hanging around Liam a lot,” Harry said looking at Louis in amazement. “You know what, I have no clue but I would actually put money on that being very close to the truth of the matter, to be honest.”

“Well then come on,” Louis said with a smug grin. “We’ve got a boat to catch!”

***

Captain’s Cabin

“Don’t worry. The brother is a non-issue right now. The Horan emergency couldn’t come at a better time.” The Captain said speaking to the receiver. “The kid’s brother followed him to send him to the nearest airport to make sure Horan was okay. He seemed pretty devastated.”

“No, there’s no way he would know the brother is no longer on the ship,” the Captain said after a pause to listen to the voice at the other end of the line. “He was just being a good friend and knew that Horan’s real emergency took precedent over looking for his errant brother. I think we can breathe easy for a little bit. At least till he joins us back when we dock in Egypt and find that his brother still hasn’t turned up on the ship. By then though, we’ll be long gone,” he said as he listened to the response.

“I’ll await the transfer of the money,” he said with a smile as he put down the receiver. 

***

 “Mate, seriously. That was an Oscar worthy performance,” Louis said patting Niall on the back before turning back to steer the boat they were on.

“Thanks. They actually fell for it hook, line and sinker,”  Niall said with a satisfied smirk.

“Yeah. So much so that they actually let us have this boat without sending anyone with us,” Harry chimed in still amazed that it had been that easy.

“Well, Niall’s dad does own the ship, and he and I have logged in so many hours at sea that it wasn’t that difficult to convince them that we knew what we were doing,” Louis said taking out his compass as he manoeuvred the small boat towards land.

“How far till we get to the place where we got the last GPS signal from Liam’s phone?”  Harry asked anxiously.

“Not too long,” Louis answered looking at his watch. “About an hour probably,” he said as Harry nodded looking out over the waters, the worry over his brother clearly etched on his face.

***

Liam slowly opened his eyes, wincing in pain as he adjusted to the light of a single light bulb hanging on the ceiling. He tried to raise his arm to cradle his aching head but found that one hand was cuffed to a chain secured against the wall behind him. His heart lurched to his throat as the memory of what happened came crashing back. The last thing he remembered was being held down as a huge syringe was plunged into his neck before he lost all consciousness. He knew that he had been drugged and he could still feel the effects of it in the numbness in his limbs and the pounding in his head.

With some difficulty, he lifted himself into a sitting position and looked around him. He was in some sort of room with a wooden door with rusted metal bars. The ‘walls’ however were terribly uneven and appeared to be made of dirt and stone. More likely a cave, probably underground or in the mountains, rather than a house or a building. It also brought home the fact that he was definitely no longer on the ship and his thought immediately fled to Harry. He had no idea what time it was or how long he had been missing but he dreaded to think what Harry must be going through right now. _I’m an idiot_ , he thought, chastising himself as he let his head drop backwards to lean against the wall as he squeezed his eyes shut.  He should have just stayed in his room quietly and waited till the next day just like Harry had said but no, he had to be so freaking impatient that he just had to go see the Professor right there and then. His eyes popped open as he remembered the Professor. _Oh God_ , he thought as he swallowed down bile that threatened to lurch up. The Professor was dead. He couldn’t believe it. _How did everything get to be so mess up?,_ he thought with a groan. He turned his head to look at the chain that his arm was cuffed to and pulled against it to test the hook it was secured to. It didn’t budge. He was well and truly screwed.

***

They had arrived at shore and docked their small boat without any difficulty thanks to the Captain giving the coastguard the heads up about their arrival. It was an arduous process getting their passports checked and verified and after being allowed entry, they wasted no time finding their way to the nearest police station. They were walking towards the police building when a commotion caught their attention.

“Please, help find my son,” a woman pleaded to a police officer as he walked out of the building and she tried to keep up whilst walking with a cane. “Please don’t treat this as a cold case and help me find him. I know he’s out there.  I’m begging you,” the woman said shoving a missing persons flyer to the officer’s hand. “Open the file back up and please help me look for my son.”

“Look ma’am”, the police officer said trying to mask his exasperation under a professional demeanour. We have all the details of your son’s case on file. That and many many other missing persons cases,” he gestured his hands to the missing person flyers that were tacked to some trees and walls of the building. We do the best that we can with the resources that we have. I wish I could help you more but that is the best I can do and I can assure you that if my men and I do find out anything, anything at all, about the whereabouts of your son, you will definitely be one of the first to know. I’m sorry. I really am but I have an appointment to get to,” he said walking away leaving the woman dejected at the stairs of the building entrance.

As the officer walked past them, he crumpled the piece of flyer paper in his hands and just as he turned the corner and was out of the woman’s sight, tossed it in a nearby rubbish bin.

“Damn,” Niall muttered as he looked at Louis and Harry who also looked as grim as he felt. “That is not a good sign.”

“Maybe it’s because the son’s been missing a long time,” Louis said as he tried to appease Harry who appeared a little pale after witnessing the little scene. He walked over to the bin and pulled out the missing persons flyer the man had thrown. “Look, it’s been six months since her son went missing. I guess that’s why the police couldn’t help as much. I’m sure if it’s a fresh case they’d open a more active investigation. Come on,” he said pocketing the flyer and motioning to Niall and Harry. “We’ll make sure to ask to see the person in charge, the Colonel, the captain or whatever they call him here.”

“I’m pretty sure that guy is the top dog here,” Niall said as he looked down the block to where they could still see the back of the man walking away in the distance.

“What?” Harry said.” How do you know?”

“It’s the stars and eagle on the shoulder lapel. It shows the rank and he’s pretty high ranked from the looks of it,” Niall answered. “I think he’s the Colonel or something.”

“Well then, what are we waiting for, let’s go,” Louis said as he turned to follow the man down the walkway.

“Um, are you sure this is a wise idea Louis. He’s about to go for some appointment or something, I don’t think he’ll be too pleased with the interruption,” Niall said as he and Harry walked briskly behind Louis trying to keep up with him.

“Well then we will wait until he’s done with his appointment and then he has no excuse not to give us his full undivided attention. This is not just a missing person’s case. We have a kidnapping, a missing artifact and ship full of people who may or may not be in danger because some corrupted captain is calling the shots. If that doesn’t deserve his full attention than I don’t know what does. Come on, he’s going into that restaurant. I don’t want to lose him,” Louis answered as he picked up his pace.

***

They were just about to enter the restaurant the Colonel had walked into when Harry stopped abruptly before grabbing both Louis and Niall by the arms and pushed them back behind the wall away from the door of the restaurant.

“Shit, shit, shit!” he said as Louis and Niall looked at him in alarm as he leaned back against the wall breathing heavily. “Oh God,” Harry said closing his eyes. “I know that guy.”

Louis and Niall looked through the window of the restaurant where they could see a guy greeting the Colonel warmly. “Who is he?” Louis asked.

“That’s Damian, Professor Kingston’s assistant!” Harry said to a confused Louis and Niall. “What the heck is he doing meeting the Colonel?”

Louis turned back to take a peek through the window. “I don’t know but they just walked together into the back room of the restaurant.”

“Quick, give me that,” Louis said as he quickly took the Raybans and cap off of a surprised Niall.

“What are you doing?” Harry said wide-eyed.

“Just trust me,” Louis said bringing the cap down lower on his head and putting Niall’s Raybans on. “Okay, now call my mobile.”

“What?” Harry asked confused.

“Just call it okay and when I answer, whatever you do, do not say anything or make any noise whatsoever. Just listen. You got that?” 

“Umm ok,” Harry said with eyebrows furrowed as he took out his phone and gave it to Niall who dialed Louis number just as Louis turned and made his way into the restaurant.

Harry and Niall waited outside as they heard rustling noises on the phone with some background noises of people talking. “Hey there!” Louis’ cheery voice suddenly came loud over the phone. Harry was about to answer when Niall nudged him to keep quiet and he nodded as he remembered Louis’ warning. Louis’ greeting was returned by a deep voice who did not sound very pleased. “This is a private room. You’re not allowed back here.”

“Whoa, I’m really sorry.” Louis’ voice came on sounding very apologetic. “I was just looking for the restroom.” Maybe you can point me in the right direction,” he said in a thick American accent followed by a sudden and loud rustling sound.  Niall and Harry listened intently as it clicked to them what Louis was doing.

“Wherever it is, it’s not here. Now leave!” They heard the deep voice snap obviously impatient at the interruption and Louis’ answer seemed faded and from a distance as they heard him say, “Okay, okay, I’m leaving. Sheesh. Sorry about that.”

“Post someone outside the door!” They heard another voice snap followed by, “Stupid tourists. My apologies, Colonel. That will not happen again.”

“Let’s just get on with this. The faster we get this done, the better,” the other male voice said which was probably the Colonel. “Now I believe you have something for me?”

Harry and Niall looked at each other not quite believing what they were hearing. Louis had joined them again and all three listened intently to the conversation in silence.

“Yes, Sir. The last installment. 100 grand as promised, in small notes. The boss and I thank you for your cooperation and your silence,” the first voice said as they heard something being slid across a surface and some locks being popped open.

“Well Damian. Tell your boss, that it’s been a pleasure. I hope this kid you have with you helps him finds what he needs.”  Harry let out a gasp as Louis quickly put a hand to his mouth giving him an urgent look of warning.  He blinked and nodded as they continued to listen in silence but with their hearts beating heavily.

They could hear only goodbyes being exchanged followed by noises of chairs scraping and footsteps slowly walking away.

Suddenly the voice of the Colonel came on again albeit a little in the distance, and what they heard left their blood run cold. “Oh and when you do get rid of him for good after, do me a favour and don’t make it messy. I don’t want any evidence lying around for anybody to see and for it to get back to me or my men.”

“You have my word, Colonel.”

***

“Are you okay?” Louis said as he handed a wet towel to Harry who sat pale faced on a bed.

They had decided on getting shelter for the night and booked a room in the nearest hotel.

“I can’t believe this is actually happening,” Harry said shaking his head. “This feels like a really bad dream. First the ship’s Captain and now the police. I just, I can’t believe this. Who are these people?” Harry asked looking up, the fear and confusion in his eyes in full display. “Their reach seems to extend everywhere Louis. I’m scared.”

“I know, Harry,” Louis said swallowing as he sat down next to Harry on the bed, putting his arms around the boy in an attempt to console him. “I guess that would explain how they got away with stealing an ancient artifact and smuggling that, as well as an actual person, by boat. You saw how when we were approaching land, we were instantly on the coastguard’s radar.  Plus all the checks and verification we had to go through before being given entry. There’s no way they could have gotten away with it if they didn’t have somebody on the inside. Having the police in the palm of their hands would have certainly helped with that,” Louis said grimly.

“But then who does that leave us to trust? Liam’s out there somewhere. How the heck are we going to find him if we don’t even have the police to help us?” Harry said looking at him eyes brimming with unshed tears. “I can’t leave here until I find him, Louis. I won’t.”

Louis nodded slowly as he held Harry’s gaze.  “I think that’s just what we have to do,” he said in resolve. “If we want to find Liam, we have to find him ourselves. I mean, we know that whoever took him needs him to help them find the treasure, right? Then, I guess we already know where he’ll be or at the very least where he’s headed! I mean it’s not like we don’t have the coordinates ourselves. So what’s stopping us from going there and getting Liam back ourselves?” Louis said looking at Harry and Niall questioningly.

“You know I’m in if it means getting Liam back safely,” Niall said after a pause. “But let’s not forget the fact that these guys may be armed and dangerous.  We’re in a foreign country and we don’t have any weapons or any backup whatsoever. That’s like a suicide mission.”

“But what’s our alternative?” Harry said getting up and started pacing. “I can’t just sit here, Niall. Look,” Harry said turning to both Louis and Niall. “I understand if you guys don’t want to take this any further. I can’t expect you to. You’ve done more than enough to help as it is and I am eternally grateful for that, but if there’s something, anything, that I can do to help get Liam back safely, then I will do it. I can’t not do it. And if that means going alone, than that is what I will do,” Harry said, trying to put on a brave front.

“Don’t be ridiculous Harry. We’re in this with you. We’ve come this far and we’re not gonna just abandon you now. I vote we go,” Louis said as they both turned expectantly to Niall.

“You guys know I’m not just going to walk away from this. But if we do this, we do it right,” he said looking at Louis and Harry earnestly. “Let’s do our research and find out exactly where the coordinates are located, estimate the number of hours or days it would take us to get there and then I’m calling my father and telling him everything. We can’t go in blind, guys. He has a friend in Interpol and if local police can’t help then maybe he can call in a favour. I’ll give him the coordinates and say that we’ll be there at a certain time so that he can send whoever it is to help us then.

“That sounds like a plan that I could get down with,” Louis said after a beat as he held out his hand palms down.

“Well, I’m certainly down with it, since you know, I thought of it and all,” Niall said with a grin putting his hands on top of Louis’ and they both looked expectantly at Harry.

 “Well come on then,” Louis urged at Harry who stood rooted looking at them in silence.

Harry’s heart was in his throat as he looked at Louis and Niall in amazement and he didn’t even bother to stop the tears that were beginning to trail down his cheeks. There were no words that could convey the gratefulness he felt at these incredible people who were willing to go way out of their way to help someone whom not too long ago, they hadn’t even met, and although he’d only known them a few days, he felt a closeness to them just as he would his own family and he could not count his blessing enough that fate had brought them into his and Liam’s life.

Instead of holding out his hands to join theirs in solidarity, he launched himself on them nearly toppling them over as he brought them into a tight hug with both arms and amidst the mock yelp and protest from Louis and the laughter that was Niall’s, for the first time since the crazy events of the past day Harry felt a sense of relief and of hope that they might actually get through this and find Liam, as long as they stick together.

***

Liam was woken up from a fitful sleep to the sound of footsteps followed by a rattling of keys. He immediately shot up to a sitting position as he suddenly remembered where he was. He felt his heart beating against his chest as the door slowly creaked open.

His panic increased as he saw two figures walk purposefully to him and despite knowing that there was no other exit he couldn’t help backing away as far as the chains allowed him desperately looking left and right for an escape.

Before he knew it, strong hands grabbed him by the front of his shirt and he felt himself being lifted up and slammed hard against the stone wall behind him, all the wind being knocked out of him.

“I see you’re awake,” he heard the guy say menacingly as he tried to regain his breathing amidst the explosion of pain in his back.

“Please,” he croaked out, throat still dry from the drug that he was administered with. “What do you want? I– I think you’ve got the wrong person,” he said blinking hard as the face of the man before him came into focus.  It was the armed guy from the ship, Bruno he thought his name was.

“For your sake, you better hope we’ve got the right guy,” Bruno hissed tightening his grip around Liam’s shirt and pushing his forearms back so as to effectively pin him against the wall.

“What? I don’t understand,” Liam said trying to breathe against the weight against his neck as he looked up in confusion to the guy that towered over him.

“You don’t have to understand anything kid. You just have to give answers to our questions,” Bruno said adjusting the position of his arm as Liam gasped against the pressure that was cutting off his circulation. “Whilst we wait for Damian to arrive, how about we start with an easy one?” he said as he grabbed something from the guy who stood next to him with his other hand and shoved it in Liam’s face. “What’s the password to this?”

“What?” Liam said trying to focus on the object before him. “Please, you’ve got the wrong person. I don’t know,” he said trying to shake his head against the arm pressed up against him.

Before he could say anything else, he felt the pressure on his neck ease followed by a sudden eruption of pain as he was viciously backhanded to the side of his face. His head snapped to the side hitting the wall behind him and his arms flailed looking for purchase as he fell to his knees. Just as quickly and before his blurry vision had time to adjust, he felt hands grabbing him again and lifting him up and slamming him up against the wall knocking any breath he had left out of him.

“We don’t have time for games! Now. Give. Me. The. Password!” Bruno said breathing heavily against Liam’s neck as Liam struggled to regain his breath, blinking furiously to register the object in front of him despite the fuzziness of his vision.

“NOW!” the guy said slamming his fist against Liam’s stomach and pulling him up again before Liam could fully register the burst of pain in his abdomen.

Struggling to breath against the pressure around his neck and the pain spreading in his back and his abdomen, Liam managed a whispered answer to his captor, before his legs gave way and he crumpled to the floor.

***

“NOOO!” Harry yelled as he sat up frantically, gasping for breath as his heart raced against his chest.

Louis quickly rushed to him and put an arm around Harry’s shoulders to calm his panic. “Harry, it’s okay. It was just a dream,” he said as Harry pulled his legs over the side of the bed still breathing heavily.

“Here,” Niall said handing over a glass of water he had rushed to get. “Are you okay?” He asked taking a seat on the other side of Harry on the bed.

“Yeah. I’m sorry,” he said as he reached into his bag and took out an inhaler. “I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said taking a puff as he tried to regulate his breathing and at the same time rid himself of the images in his nightmare.

“How long have I been asleep?” He asked after his breathing settled enough, looking at Louis and Niall in confusion. They were all up doing research last night and he didn’t remember falling asleep.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Niall and I didn’t want to wake you up when you dozed off. It was pretty late already and I think we’re all going to need all the rest and energy we have to get through the next couple of days.”

Harry reached out for his wristwatch on the table and saw that it was 8 o’clock in the morning. “Have you guys been up all this time?” he asked looking at the room where Niall’s laptop was open with leftover food and various papers strewn about. “What have I missed?” He asked feeling guilty that he had fallen asleep on them.

“Quite a lot,” Louis grinned motioning him over to the table where Niall’s computer was set up. “Come on. Let us bring you up to speed.”

***

 “I think we stumbled into something far bigger than we anticipated,” Niall said as he walked back to his seat in front of his laptop. “The Audi we saw Damian being driven away in at the restaurant is registered to a company which is part of the Orras Group of Companies. It’s apparently the biggest group of company in the country. It’s owned by a tycoon entrepreneur named Sidi Orras who is also the founder of the Orras Trust and Foundation. His foundation provides a wide range of grants and funding to different ventures including, get this, full grant and funding for research and excavation works in various archaeological ventures. It says here that their most successful venture to date is one led by no other than our recently deceased, Professor Richard Kingston. If Sidi Orras is involved, you can bet that he would have the resources to pay off a lot of people to further his cause.”

Harry looked at him confused. “But if he is involved, why would he be so desperate to want to find the treasure of King Imhotep? He’s filthy rich enough as it is, isn’t he?” he asked.

“Good question,” Niall answered as he turned back to his laptop and started typing again. “I was wondering the same thing. That’s why I decided to dig deeper and I found this,” he said turning the screen to Harry as he leaned forward to look.

It was an article about Sidi Orras’ family which stated that his wife was diagnosed with cancer last year and how since then, he’s been trying to get her the best treatment money can buy. Despite all the treatment though, the article went on to say that there appears to be no cure and she’s only been getting worst and have been given only a few weeks left to live.

 “You don’t think...” he started as Niall raised his eyebrows and Louis nodded his head signifying that they had come to the same conclusion.  “Wow. That would explain a lot,” he said leaning back against the chair trying to compute all the information. “He’s not in it for the money. He’s doing this for his dying wife. If she only has a few weeks left to live and none of the conventional treatment seems to work, it makes sense that he would try everything in his power to find an alternative solution and if there’s whisperings of a miracle elixir…” he said trailing off.

“Exactly,” Louis said piping in. “He’s desperate and running out of time and if there is even a chance of the theory of the miracle elixir is true, he is going to go all out to find it. He has the money and the power to make it happen and it doesn’t seem like he would let anything get in his way,” he said as Harry took in all the new information.

“It makes sense,” Harry said looking up from the screen. “He’s rich and powerful enough to have all the connections to pull this off. I think we’re really on to something.”

“Oh that’s not the only update we have though,” Louis said with a grin.  “We’ve got a really big one.”

“Seriously?” Harry said in surprise. “This is pretty big already.”

“Yeah well this one’s big enough that you might want to sit down,” he said motioning for Harry to take a seat looking at them confused.

“Those numbers in the codes that we decrypted, well those aren’t exactly coordinates.”

“WHAT?!” Harry exclaimed looking at both Louis and Niall in dismay. “No! They have to be! That’s the whole basis of our finding the treasure and Liam! Guys please don’t tell me we’re back to square one!” Harry said standing up in wide-eyed panic.

“Relax Harry, there’s more,” Niall said grabbing Harry’s hand to pull him back to the chair as he nodded for Louis to continue.

“That right there was exactly me and Niall’s reaction when we found out that they weren’t coordinates! Let me tell you a panic attack in the middle of the night really takes a lot out of you,” Louis said taking a seat next to Harry.

“So, we checked for the location based on the current numbers in the decrypted code and it turned out it’s nowhere near here. It actually showed a location in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea!” Niall explained showing the original location of the “coordinates” on the screen. “So we figured that it was either the treasure was there in the middle of the ocean, which honestly is crazy and really unlikely seeing as it's so far off shore and nowhere near any body of land, or the numbers weren’t coordinates in the first place.”

“Luckily though,” Louis continued with a grin “I was able to draw upon my immense knowledge of nautical and maritime navigation,” he said smugly as Niall rolled his eyes. “Anyway, one of the classes I had to take in my nautical engineering studies was Ancient Maritime History and the thing I remembered was, in ancient times, they didn’t have coordinates to pinpoint location. The latitude and longitude we have today weren’t fully fleshed out. But they did have a complicated formula based on the position and alignment of the Sun, Moon, planets and other astronomical data as well as tables of distances of the Moon from the Sun and whatnot to determine the whereabouts of a place. It took me ages but I managed to figure out that those numbers are actually a mathematical equation or formula. And since they are formulas, I was able to convert the series of numbers to a current coordinate. It took me forever but thanks to Niall here, we think we got a location!”

“Yeah,” Niall said as he typed in some commands on his laptop and turned it for Harry to see. “It’s in the eastern desert across the Nile River and headed towards the Red Sea.” He pointed to a map that was on the screen. “Maybe about two or three days travel away from where we are right now depending on the mode of travel,” he finished with a smirk.

“Wow,” Harry shook his head in disbelief. “Thank God! I can’t believe you guys managed to do all that!”

“Pretty cool right?” Niall said smirking.

“You guys are amazing!” Harry said laughing as he hugged them both. “I guess it’s just as well I was asleep because I definitely would have slowed you down even more since I would have been a nervous wreck after finding out the numbers weren’t coordinates.”

“Yeah. It also would have been faster if I had paid more attention in class,” Louis said with a shrug. “Now all we need to do is make arrangements for transportation to the place, get an estimated time for us to reach there and Niall can contact his Dad for back up.”

“I can’t believe we’re actually doing this,” Harry said. “You guys must be absolutely knackered. You should sleep now and let me take over the research. I found some info about the amulet that has the same stone and design pattern as the sceptre that I want to follow up on.” Harry reached over to his laptop and started to work.

***

Liam startled awake as he felt something wet against his face and quickly jolted backwards when he saw a guy kneeling right in front of him with a cloth in his hands.

“Sorry,” the guy said quietly as he put both hands in front of him indicating that he meant no harm.

“I’m just here to clean your wounds,” He said as he reached again to wipe the bleeding cut on Liam’s temple.

Liam couldn’t help but flinched at the hands in front of him, heart beating heavily. Last night’s events were still clear in his mind and he had the pain and bruises to show for it. He wasn’t trusting any one any time soon.

The guy in front of him though was young, maybe about his age or older and he was dressed different. Plain, like a worker or a servant. And his eyes showed no malice or anger. Nothing like the two guys he encountered last night.

Liam furrowed his eyebrows in confusion when the guy uttered another apology as Liam winced in pain at a particularly painful cut he has attending to.

“Why are you doing this?” Liam asked carefully after mustering up the courage to speak up. His voice was heavy and unused and sounded foreign even to his own ears.

The guy tending to him reached over to take a bottle of water from a tray nearby and offered it to Liam.

“Here. You should drink this,” he said quietly as he rinsed the wet cloth he was using to continue cleaning Liam’s wounds.

After a while, he shrugged, “I just do what they tell me to,” he said as he packed the stuff and slid a tray of food near to Liam. “You should eat,” he said as he turned to leave.

“Wait. Please,” Liam said suddenly not wanting to be left alone again. He was the only guy since this whole ordeal started that Liam inexplicably felt he wasn’t in danger around and he didn’t want him to leave. “Can you help me? I’m not supposed to be here. Please, you have to help me get out.”

The boy finally met his eyes but the look he gave him was one full of sadness and regret before he continued to pick up the stuff and turned. “I’m sorry. But there is no way out of this place once you’re in.” 

Not willing to take that as the final answer Liam instinctively reached out to try to stop him from leaving, grabbing a handful of shirt as the boy gets up to leave.

His action however left him gasping in horror as the loose shirt fell over the boy's shoulder displaying an array of angry welt marks and wounds criss-crossing throughout the span of the boy's shoulders and back that was visible.

Liam slowly let go of the shirt and watched wide eyed as the boy tugged his shirt up and walked towards the door. Before he closed the door behind him, he turned back to look at Liam, “Like I said, once you’re here, there is no getting out.”

Liam pulled his knees up as he remembered the haunted look behind the boy’s eyes. Where and what the hell was this place? He shivered as he wrapped his hands around his knees.

He had no doubt now that whoever the boy was, he was not one of the bad guys and he was here against his will just like Liam.

His mind wandered back to last night’s incident and he shuddered. His captors were brutal and showed that they would stop at nothing to get what they want. But if he gave them the answer they wanted, what then? Would they still keep him around or would they just kill him? He questioned, and he had a deep sinking feeling that he knew the answer to that question. 

He didn’t know how long exactly he’d been gone and if anybody even knew he was off the ship but he knew that Harry would be worrying himself sick right now. His heart was wracked in guilt as he thought about the events of the night before and how everything would have been avoided if he had listened and waited the one day like Harry told him to. He was an idiot. It was his fault that this had happened and he was just really sorry that he had to put Harry or anyone else through this again, he thought as he slumped his head down to where his knees were drawn near his chest.

***

“You’re awake!” Harry said as Niall sat up stretching his arms.

“I’m hungry. What time is it?” Niall asked rubbing his eyes.

“Way past lunch but I ordered us food,” Harry said pointing to the nearby table littered with food containers that were still full.

“I’m glad you’re up, I have something to show you guys but I think maybe we should wait for Louis to wake,” he said glancing at Louis sleeping form in the nearby bed.

“I’m up,” they heard Louis mumble as he turned around with sleep addled eyes.

“Oh great!” Harry said excitedly. “Come on,” Harry said giving a smack to Louis legs as he let out a groan. “I want to show you guys something.”

A few minutes later, they were all huddled around the table looking at the screen of Harry’s laptop.

“So I tracked down the amulet and its whereabouts and apparently it’s in a private collection of the Ramses family right here in Egypt,” Harry said. “They’re a family of collectors of different types of antiquities and have quite a healthy collection. Anyway,” he said excitedly as he turned the screen around to show an article about a charity dinner being hosted by one Mr. and Mrs. Ramses. “So it turns out that they are having a charity dinner tomorrow night at their private villa here in Egypt where their collection is up for display.”

“Wait. Why do we need the amulet again?” Niall asked confused as he took a bite out of his burger that Harry had ordered them for lunch.

“Well, I was thinking about what Louis said about the triangle shaped stone of both the amulet and the sceptre possibly being an actual key to finding the treasure and the more I think about it, the more I think Louis might be right. Both the sceptre and the amulet have the code that tells the location of the treasure and both contain a stone which is identical to the other. I don’t think that’s just a coincidence. In fact I’m pretty sure that it’s something we need, to get our hands on the treasure and since we don’t have the sceptre… ”

“So what you’re saying is you want to steal the amulet from this couple’s private collection?” Louis asked with a raised eyebrow.

“What? No,” Harry said looking at Niall and Louis. “I was thinking more like um, secretly borrow?” Harry said with a wince.

“Well, I’ll be. Didn’t think you had it in you,” Louis said with a smack against his back.

“Well, what are the chances they would just give it to me then?” Harry asked.

“Not likely, mate. There’ll be too many questions. They’ll probably think you’re crazy and they’ll get the authorities involved and yeah, don’t think that will happen.”

“See, that’s what I thought,” Harry said glumly. “It’s not stealing if I return it back right?” he said looking up at Louis and Niall hoping for an answer that would help him settle his conscience, but not getting one.

“How sure are you that we need this amulet to get to the treasure?” Niall asked looking at him in earnest.

“I don’t know Niall, I’m not a 100% sure but everything in my gut and instinct says that we do,” he said looking from Niall to Louis. “You think I’m crazy, don’t you? And you know what? You’re probably right. I can’t explain why I think that exactly, I just do and how ironic is that really?” Harry said getting up as he started pacing.

“Usually I’m the one looking at Liam like he’s lost his marbles when he’s excitedly telling me these crazy theories and expecting me to not only believe him but to actually help find evidence to support it. I mean, some of his theories are so out of the box that a lot of people may just write off as ludicrous but you know what? More often than not, he’s right or if not exactly right, he’s closer to the truth than a heck of a lot of people have ever gotten.”

And now that he’s on the receiving end of the crazy looks, he gets it. It’s not the best place to be but yet there’s this nagging feeling inside of him that it is right. And it’s something he can’t explain.

“But here’s the thing though,” he continued contemplating, “If I do this, the worst that could happen is I get caught stealing. If I _don’t_ do this, the worst that could happen is I’ll lose Liam,” he said his voice hitching as he looked desperately from Niall to Louis. “It’s not exactly an option is it?” 

“Well, the way I see it, as crazy as Liam’s theories are, it got him to discover the location of an ancient treasure trove that a lot of people have been looking for, for centuries! So you know what, we’ll take your crazy theories anytime,” Louis said smiling. “But you’re not stealing or ‘borrowing’ this amulet, Harry,” he added in all seriousness as Harry looked at him confused.

“We are,” Louis said as he turned to look at Niall for confirmation.

Niall returned his look and shrugged. “I guess, in for a penny, in for a pound.  It’s just as well we’re well practiced in our breaking and entering skills,” he added grinning. 

***

“What have I missed?” Damian said as he walked into the tent where Bruno was cleaning his guns. “Has our guest been cooperative?” he asked as he reached a nearby table to pour himself a glass of Scotch.

“We waited for you to arrive to ask the hard hitting questions,” Bruno said looking up from his task. “But we did get the password to this from him,” he said taking out the thumbdrive and holding it out to Damian.

“Good. That will save us some time from having to crack the code. Did he give it out willingly though?” Damian asked questioningly as he took the drive.

“Well with a little persuasion.” Bruno answered with a smirk. “Don’t worry, he’s still alive. A little shaken I would think but he needed to know that we mean business.”

“Great. Make sure he stays alive until we get all the information we need,” Damian said taking a sip from his glass.

“He’s being taken care off,” Bruno answered curtly.

“Let’s see what’s in this then,” he said pulling out a laptop from his bag and switching it on. “Bloody professor was so secretive about it and I couldn’t get my hands on it before he just handed it over to those pesky kids. So, what’s the password?” he asked after slotting in the drive.

Damian snorted as Bruno told him the password Liam had given him. “I should have guessed,” he said keying in the password and smiled as access was granted to the confidential files in it. “The professor sure did love his James Bond and his gambling.”

***

Liam’s head snapped up when he heard the rattling of keys and the creak of the door as it opened slowly. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was just the guy who brought him food and watched him carefully approach.

“I’m Liam,” he said tentatively as the guy put the food down, not meeting his eyes.

“You didn’t eat,” the guy mumbled as he took the tray of barely touched food and replaced it with a new one, ignoring Liam’s introduction.

“I’m sorry,” Liam said softly.

The guy frowned shaking his head, “You don’t have to apologize,” he said still avoiding eye contact.

“No,” Liam said as he reached out to hold the guy by the arm to get his attention. “I mean, I’m sorry. About whatever happened to you. I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

The guy stopped what he was doing and looked at Liam in surprise.

“You didn’t,” he answered finally. “It doesn’t really hurt me much anymore.”

“Did they do it to you?” Liam asked carefully.

The guy hesitated before nodding. “I tried to escape and that was what I got for it.”

“I am so so sorry,” Liam replied in horror.

“It was a while ago,” the guy said shaking his head dismissively. “It didn’t stop me from trying again though, and many many times after that.” He continued with a wry grin, “After a while they figured out they could do whatever they wanted I just didn’t care. I wanted out. However way that was,” he finished grimly.

“What happened?” Liam asked quietly.

The guy gave a quick glance at the door before he looked down and answered, “One day they just stopped. I think they got wise to the fact that their punishment wasn’t working on me. So every time I tried to escape or went out of line after that, they stopped punishing me and started punishing others for it. The other workers, servants or whatever you want to call us.”

“There are others?” Liam asked as the guy nodded.

“Yeah. Quite a number. Not just men. It’s a dig site and they use us for cheap, or rather, unpaid labour. You’ve only seen me because I happen to be on kitchen duty this week.”

“How did they punish the others?” Liam asked not quite sure whether he wanted to know the answer.

“Same way they would usually punish me. Beatings, whipping, whatever they felt like that day. Worst thing was they made me watch. Saying that it was my fault,” he said with a haunted look on his face. “And I couldn’t. I just couldn’t be responsible for that, knowing that I was the one that caused it. They don’t deserve it.”  

“So you stopped,” Liam answered quietly as the guy looked away, anguish clearly etched on his face. “I’m really sorry,” Liam said in earnest as the guy looked back to meet Liam’s eyes for a second before he got up and walked towards the door.

He turned back just as he was about to close the door behind him.

“Zayn,” he said. “My name is Zayn.”

***

“Guess what? We don’t need to break in!” Niall said with a wide smile. “I wrangled us three invites!”

“You did not!” Harry said wide eyed. “How the hell did you manage that?”

“I just asked my dad’s secretary to give the Ramses a call saying that our company’s looking for different causes to look into as part of our corporate charity activities and that we had a healthy budget that we would like to channel into worthy causes. She told them that we were interested in this little charity event that they were doing and voila! They immediately replied with the invites. Piece of cake,” Niall said grinning as he pushed his chair away from the table.

“Excellent Niall,” Louis said patting Niall on the back. “This would make the whole thing a hell of a lot easier.”

“But how do we do this though?” Harry asked frowning. “There’s going to be a lot of people at this event. We can’t just steal the amulet right under their noses. Surely security would keep an eagle eye out over everything.”

“You’re right, Harry. We need a distraction,” Louis said as he started pacing. “Something that’s big enough to get all the focus off the collection of antiquities for a while at least.”

“Well I was thinking about that,” Niall said as he motioned Harry and Louis to join him at the table. “And I think, the fact that the Ramses are as rich as they are and quite technologically advance, will make this a lot easier for us.”

“What do you mean?” Harry asked.

“Well apparently they live in this really cool ‘smart house,’ look,” he said pointing to a screen which showed different features of a smart house and how everything seems to be automated and electronically linked and operated.

“Everything in the house, from the electricity, to the alarms, to the sprinklers, are linked to a main system. All I need to do is get my hands on that main system and I can control everything.”

“Whoa. How difficult would that be?” Harry asked.

“Well it’s definitely not going to be easy. But since we’ll be in the house itself, all I need is to hook up to a port within the house and do what I do best,” he said with a grin.

“Once I’m in, I can control the power supply, the humidity, the alarm, the sprinklers, you name it.”

“Mate, if you can cut off the power supply for a few minutes and maybe set off the fire alarm in the house and the garden sprinklers or something, that would be awesome. That would give Harry and I just enough time to hopefully grab the amulet and get out of there amidst the chaos.”

“Well I could most certainly try,” Niall said smiling at Louis and Harry. “I’ll get the floor plans and the directions to the Ramses place, print out the invites and then we’ll be good to go.”

“Wow I don’t know what to say,” Harry said looking at both Louis and Niall in amazement.

“You don’t have to say anything, Harry,” Louis said. “Just come with me tomorrow morning and help get us some fancy new threads to go to this dinner. I’m hopeless at stuff like that.”

“I could do that,” Harry said eagerly. “I could most certainly do that,” He smiled. “And maybe we can also get some supplies for our trek to go find this treasure. A couple of days in the desert is not gonna be easy unless we’re well equipped.”

“You’re absolutely right Harry,” Louis said in agreement. “We need to get all that sorted quick. In the meantime, I suggest we all get a good night’s rest tonight cause tomorrow is going to be a big day.”

  ***

Liam startled as the doors to the room was abruptly opened. He quickly dropped the piece of stone that he had been using to shave the metal cuffs around his left wrist and hid it behind him.

“You’re coming with us,” A guard said taking his arm and unlocking the cuff around it before dragging him out of the room.

He blinked and shielded his eyes with his free hand trying to adjust to the direct sunlight when the cave like tunnels they were in, gave way to open air and a wide span of desert as far as the eye could see. The site was a bevy of activities and he saw several people walking in and out of caves and tents that had been set up around the location, some carrying shovels and other digging equipment whilst some carried weapons on their shoulder. 

Nobody really paid attention to him as he was dragged by the arm across the clearing to a nearby tent. He didn’t have time to survey the surroundings in the tent he was dragged into before he was thrown unceremoniously on the floor.

He stifled a groan at the impact as his body met the hard ground not having the time to brace the fall with his hands. He blinked the pain away and opened his eyes to see a pair of feet directly in his line of vision. He looked up to see Damian looking down at him.

“Good morning,” Damian said as he waved an order to his men and immediately a chair was slid behind him and Liam was practically lifted from the ground and dumped on the seat. He struggled in vain as the men bound his arms to the back of the chair.

“Liam, right?” Damian leant down as Liam looked at him his heart pounding but trying to put on a brave front. “I think you know why you’re here, don’t you?”

“I already gave you what you wanted. Everything you need to know is on the thumbdrive. You don’t need me. Just let me go,” he said as he struggled against the ropes.

“Are you messing with us, boy?” Damian asked angrily as he grabbed a hold of Liam’s throat with one hand and leaned down threateningly to look at him directly in the eyes.

“I saw the contents of that thumbdrive and it was a complete joke! There’s absolutely nothing in there that I need,” he said menacingly as his grip slowly tightened around Liam’s throat cutting off his supply of oxygen. “But I do know you have something though. ‘Something big,’ right? Wasn’t that what you called it when you came to see the professor that night? I heard it with my own ears. So make it easier on all of us and JUST BLOODY TELL US WHAT IT IS!” Damian shouted squeezing hard as Liam struggled against his grasp fighting against the dark spots that appeared, threatening to take him under. Just when he thought he was about to slip into unconsciousness, the grip around his throat was released and he took a deep breath that ended in a wracking coughing fit as oxygen made its way through his system again. 

“Please. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Liam said shaking his head as he tried to talk through the wrack of cough that tore through him.

Stepping back in anger, Damian motioned for Bruno to take over. “I didn’t want it to come to this but you’re forcing my hand, kid,” he said as Bruno walked over ominously putting a metal knuckle bar on his hands and Liam watched in horror as he swung it down in full force directed right to his head.

Liam felt the brute force of the hits on his face and on his torso. He barely had time to recover before another blow came crashing down. His vision blurred from the very first blow and the back hand of the second blow completely disoriented him causing an incessant ringing in his ears. He had been hit before but never with this much force and strength and his determination to drag things and buy himself more time was beginning to waiver. He didn’t know how much more he could take and knew he was about to lose consciousness any minute now.

From the corner of his eyes that were beginning to swell from the blows, he saw Bruno remove the metal knuckle bar and take a knife from a nearby table. His heart raced in panic as he saw Bruno walk slowly towards him through blurred vision. He felt his hair being gripped and cold steel being pressed against his neck and let out an involuntary hiss. As the blade sank into his skin and dragged its way to his collar bones he couldn’t help but scream in pain begging his captors to stop.

The grip on his hair was immediately release and he hung his head down, breathing heavily.

“Please, I’ll tell you,” he said amidst the tears and the blood that was trailing its way down his face. “Just stop,” he said as Damian made his way back to him with a smirk.

“I knew you’d come to,” he said grabbing Liam’s jaw and lifting it up so that they were eye to eye.

Liam blinked trying to clear his vision.

“The treasure,” Liam said breathing heavily. “We found out something about the treasure. That was what I came to see the professor about.”

“Well. What about it?” Damian asked impatiently.

“It's not just money and valuables. We think there’s a challis amidst the treasure that if you drink from it, it has special healing powers,” Liam said wincing through the pounding in his head. “We figured out that that’s the reason why the king’s remains were of someone much younger than he was. It was him. Just that he was kept young by this.”

Damian looked at him waiting for him to continue.

“‘Is that it?” Damian said as he stepped back in anger when Liam didn’t continue. “That was the revelation you found?” He asked as Liam nodded breaking into a coughing fit as he tried to regulate his breathing.

“You son of a bitch! Do you take me for a fool?! Did you think that we would have gone through all of this if we didn’t already know that piece of information. It may not be in any history books but that little myth has lived on in old folks tales and passed on through generations. It was only when the tomb of King Imhotep and his remains was found that there were whisperings of its truth! ...And you are giving me this piece of information like it’s some big secret and revelation!?...Well you definitely have balls kid I’ll give you that but you chose the wrong person to mess around with!” he said as he sent the chair and Liam hurtling over sideways in anger.

He bent down to where Liam was wincing in pain from the hard fall and whispered menacingly. “One chance. One more chance. That’s all I’m giving you kid. You think about that ‘cause the next time we talk I WANT ANSWERS!” he said as he stood up and gave a swift kick to Liam’s head and his world turned black.

***

“AAARGH!!!” Damian yelled as he pushed the contents of the nearby table scattering to the floor. “Stupid kid!” he said fuming as he watched his men drag an unconscious Liam out of the tent back to his cave prison.

“He’s stalling. He’s only giving us enough every time we ask but not enough information for what we need. And we don’t have the time to wait this one out.”

“We can get it out of him,” Bruno said determined. “He’s not some Navy Seal who’s been trained to not break from all forms of interrogation tactics. He’s a bloody kid. I can break him.”

“You saw him. We almost already killed him and he’s no good to us dead. We need to change tactics a bit!” Damian said pacing the floor of the tent, “and I think I might just have a plan.”

***

“Harry, you okay?” Louis said as he slid the glass balcony door open to see Harry sitting on the floor with his back to the wall looking out into the expanse of darkness.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Harry said as he pulled his knees up to wrap his arms around them.

Louis went back into the room and came back with a blanket and settled down to join Harry in the same position.

“You’re shivering,” he said as he put the blanket around the both of them.

“Thanks,” Harry said gratefully as he grabbed a hold of one end of the blanket and pulled it around him.

“How long have you been out here?” Louis said looking at his watch which showed that it was almost two o'clock in the morning.

“A while,” Harry shrugged. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t. I got up to pee and saw you weren’t in your bed.”

“Yeah. I just, I can’t sleep thinking about Liam.”

“I know you’re worried, Harry. But you need the sleep.”

“I can’t help it. Liam’s out there somewhere all alone and I just really hope he’s okay. I should have listened to him that night. I shouldn’t have switched off my phone. It’s my fault, Louis. It’s all my fault,” Harry said choking up. “If anything happened to him, I don’t know whether I could live with myself,” he said tears trailing down his face as Louis pulled him into a one armed hug.

“Harry, please, just listen to me, okay? It’s not your fault. Things happen. Bad things happen and not everything is your fault.”

“You don’t understand. This isn’t the first time,” Harry said looking up through his tears.

“What are you talking about?” Louis said turning to Harry confused.

“Remember when I told you about Liam being bullied and that my parents not knowing anything about it? Well I knew. Ever since we were twelve I knew,” Harry said his voice hitching as he explained. “I walked in on Liam when he was in the shower and he had all these bruises on him. I made him tell me what the hell was going on and that’s when he confided in me that he was being bullied. I wanted to tell mum and dad right away but he begged me not to. He said he was handling it and he had it under control. So I didn’t do anything. I didn’t tell anyone. I was the only person that knew and I didn’t do anything, Louis. I think I wanted to believe it so badly that he was handling it fine that I didn’t see all the signs that were there. It wasn’t until we were sixteen when we discovered that he was still being bullied. We got a call from the school that Liam was in the hospital. He was involved in a really bad fight. Some older kids had chased him and cornered him and he couldn’t get away so he fought back. He was outnumbered and got hurt pretty bad. Some of the bullies got expelled for what they did. Heck, even Liam almost got expelled but the school took into account the fact that he didn’t have a bad track record there, so he got let off… But you should have seen the look on our parents faces,” Harry continued.  “They were shocked. Liam’s always been the one to go by the book and avoid trouble so they had absolutely no idea that he was having trouble at school. And there I was, the only one that Liam had confided in all those years ago and I didn’t say anything. I mean, I know he told me not to tell anyone but he was twelve, Louis. How much of a handle of things does a twelve year old have over something like that anyway? Nobody can deal with something like that alone, without help. But I was stupid enough to not question it at that time and chose to keep quiet about it,” he said shaking his head.

“He was going through it for almost half a freaking decade and there I was living in my own little world, going to parties and having this amazing social life whilst Liam was going through a miserable time and it almost got him killed. All because I didn’t do anything.  That day, I swore to myself, never again. I won’t ever turn my back like that, ever. After that, my parents took Liam out of his old school and put him into the same one as me and I stuck to him like glue. They enrolled the both of us in boxing classes and only then, did things finally get better. If I had told them earlier, Liam could have avoided all those years of hell growing up and it was my fault. And now, I feel like it’s happening all over again. I broke that promise I made to myself. I shouldn’t have ignored him that night. I shouldn’t have been too caught up partying the night away and now Liam’s in trouble because of me!”

“But Harry, you were just a kid as well,” Louis said interrupting Harry’s tearful confession. “Who the hell knows what to do when they’re twelve? I don’t even remember half the things I did when I was that age let alone be smart enough to make important life decisions. You can’t take responsibility for that. And you talk about not doing anything, but you are doing something. Heck, you’re about to steal an ancient artifact from someone’s private collection tomorrow and basically commit a criminal offence, just so you could help save your brother!” Louis said as he grabbed Harry by the shoulders to make him listen to reason.  “That is not ‘not doing anything’ Harry! You didn’t even think twice about staying on to do whatever it takes to help save Liam and honestly, anyone would be lucky to have someone who cares about them the way you care about Liam,” Louis said as Harry looked at him blinking back the tears he was holding. “We can’t do anything about what has happened in the past but we can work on what happens from hereon in. Liam needs us more than ever now. You said you would do whatever it takes to get Liam back right? Will you still do it?”  


“Of course I will,” Harry said, “that isn’t even a question”.

“Well then what you need to do is to be strong for Liam right now and focus your effort and energy to getting him back. And right now, what you need is a good night’s rest so that we’re fresh and alert for a big day ahead,” Louis said as he stood up and offered his hand to Harry to help him up.

Harry wiped his tear stained face and took a deep calming breath before he finally reached out to take Louis hand.

“Why do I feel like Oprah all of a sudden,” Louis said as he helped Harry up.

“Shut up. Don’t ruin it,” Harry said hitting Louis in the arm with a small smile as he pulled Louis into a big hug and whispered a quiet but heartfelt thank you.

As they walked back into the room, they saw Niall, with eyes still closed, open the duvet cover with one hand as an invite for Harry to join them on the big king size bed he was sharing with Louis. Crawling to position himself comfortably in the middle of the bed, he let go of the fear and anxiousness he had been feeling and suddenly realised how tired he actually was. Tucked in between Niall, who had snuggled in closer, and Louis, who kept a comforting hand on his shoulder, he said a silent prayer to look out for Liam and keep him safe, and finally let sleep take over.

 ***

“It’s okay. It’s just me,” Zayn said putting a hand on Liam’s shoulder to calm him as he startled back into consciousness.

“What?” Liam looked up at him in confusion. “What are you doing here?” He asked disoriented.

“They asked me to look out for you tonight,” Zayn said pointing to the tray of water and swabs he had used to clean Liam’s wound whilst he was unconscious. “They were worried about your head injury and wanted me to make sure you woke up every few hours just in case the concussion took a turn for the worst.

Even in his groggy state Liam couldn’t help but scoff at that, but the act left him wincing as the movement gave way to a sharp pain splicing through his head.

“If they were so worried about my injuries they wouldn’t have caused it in the first place,” he said bitterly. Despite the pain and protest from his body he slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position.

“Careful,” Zayn said as he helped Liam sit up.

“Thank you,” Liam said as he leaned heavily against the wall.

“They really did a number on you,” Zayn winced as he handed him a bottle of water which Liam took gratefully.

“How long have I been out?” Liam asked as Zayn took a seat next to him also leaning his back against the wall of the cave.

“A couple of hours. I’ll wake you up in a few hours to check up on you again, so you should go back to sleep.”

“The only way I can sleep is if I’m unconscious,” Liam said frowning as his hands automatically reached out for the rock he had hidden and started shaving the metal cuffs.

“It’s not going to work you know,” Zayn said after a while as he watched Liam work futilely to shave the cuff and hardly making a dent.

“Well I can’t just sit here and do nothing,” Liam said looking up eyes brimming with tears.

“Liam, stop,” Zayn said grabbing Liam’s hand to still it. “You’re injured. You need to rest.”

“What I need is to get out of here, Zayn,”  Liam said as angry tears threatened to spill.

“I know Liam. I know” Zayn said softly as he reached around Liam and squeezed his shoulders as the younger boy slumped against him in exhaustion, giving up on his meager attempt to escape the metal cuffs.

In fact, he knows only too well. He remembered the day he was brought to this place like it was yesterday and how he had refused to do anything they had asked him to do despite whatever beatings and punishment they inflicted. He was angry and scared and just so very lost and there was no one. No one he could turn to when he needed it the most. The anger, the fear and the despair. He knows it all too well, even now. And he would never wish that on anyone, he thought resting his head back on the hard wall of the cave and squeezing his eyes shut trying to rid himself of the memories of the event that had brought him here and everything that has happened since.

He opened his eyes after a while when he felt Liam shift under his arms.

Pulling his knees up gingerly and wrapping his arms around them, Liam leaned his aching head and turned towards Zayn to ask softly, “How did you end up in this place?”

Zayn shifted uncomfortably looking down. He had never talked about it. Not to anyone. And the pain of it was still fresh like it was yesterday but he knew Liam needed to hear this and to know that he wasn’t alone. Nobody was there for him when he needed it, maybe he could be there for Liam.

Pulling up his own knees and mirroring Liam’s pose, he started telling him his story.

“I wish she had never met him,” he said staring straight ahead. “My Dad died a while back and my mom had been supporting me on her own all these years and he was just some idiot guy who she met randomly and made her feel special at a time when she needed it the most. She didn’t even know him that well. And the worst thing is that she has always been so careful and never does anything impulsively but since I just started university to do an English degree, she thought that she’d do something for herself for once and took up his invite for a getaway in his exotic home country and escape the British winter. I wasn’t even supposed to come along. She felt bad about leaving me alone for the Christmas holidays and scrounged up money for my tickets so that I could come. He definitely wasn’t happy about it but my mom didn’t really give him a choice in the matter. It was okay you know, while it lasted. Going away with mum for a holiday in a foreign country. We had never done that before. Money was always tight and she was working hard to support us. And then that drunk driving accident happened and she was taken away from me,” he said breath hitching as he turned his head away. “She was my whole life, Liam. And I lost her just like that,” he said not bothering to stop the tears from falling. This time, he felt Liam’s hand on his arm give him a comforting squeeze.

“I am so sorry,” Liam said his heart aching just hearing Zayn’s story. He couldn’t imagine going through that alone in a foreign country and having no one there for you. What a terrible thing to happen to anybody.

 “I was at the hospital after being told about her condition and I just, I lost it. They said they couldn’t do anything else for her and I refused to accept it and I didn’t want to leave. But I couldn’t stay at the hospital because she was in the High Dependency Unit. The thing was, my mom’s supposed boyfriend didn’t want to put me up anymore once she wasn’t in the picture and instead of helping me get my way back to the UK he took the easy way out and handed me over to these people. Pretty sure he got some money for it too. That was, I think more than six months ago and I’ve been here ever since.”

“That’s terrible. That’s more than half a year, Zayn. How the heck did you survive being here all this long?” Liam asked in horror.

“Well. You saw the scars,” Zayn said with a tight smile. “Like I said before, I wanted out, however way it was,” he continued grimly. “But I couldn’t. I just couldn’t, if it meant that it would be at the expense of innocent people getting hurt. It’s a numb existence but going about doing the work they give me is the only way I know how to cope. I don’t really care what happens to me but at least I know that nobody else will get hurt… You know,” Zayn said continuing. “Maybe if you cooperated with them, they won’t be so hard on you. They’ll usually give you some time to recover from the wounds and they’ll put you to work. I’ve survived this place for more than six months, we can survive this together, Liam.”

“Zayn,” Liam said turning to Zayn. “They didn’t bring me here to work on the dig site.”

“I don’t understand,” Zayn said looking at him confused.  “What do they want from you? Everyone else they’ve taken was for the labour they needed for this site.”

“Do you know what this site is for?” Liam asked.

“I know they made some big archaeological discovery or something, about the time before they took me and they expanded the site so that they can dig further. That’s all I know.”

“They’re looking for treasure,” Liam said. “A long lost ancient treasure which comprises the riches of an entire kingdom.”

“Yeah. I thought it was something like that with the amount of people and effort that they’ve put into it. But what’s that got to do with you then?” Zayn asked.

“They think I know where it is.”

“You’re kidding. Why would they think that? Wouldn’t they have expert archaeologists looking into this? Why would they want a kid to find the treasure?”

“Because I’m an idiot and blurted out that I figured some big discovery about the treasure to the Professor that was previously in charge of this dig, not knowing that some people were listening in.”

“Wait. So you really know where the treasure is then?” Zayn asked.

“Well, I think so,” Liam said with a shrug. “I just need a computer with an internet connection to check whether the info I have is accurate. I didn’t get a chance to, before I was taken.”

“But how in the hell did you get involved in this whole darn mess in the first place?”

“I’m an archaeology student. My brother and I, we both take archaeology at Durham Uni and we won this competition and got seats to a cruise where this big archaeology conference was held. Anyway, long story short, the professor that was previously in charge of this site, was in the conference and liked our submission about deciphering the historical backgrounds of ancient artifacts and gave us all his info about the findings of this pyramid. Well we managed to figure out the location of the treasure from the sceptre they found at the site as well as the drawings on the walls of the pyramid. “

“How did you manage to figure that out?” Zayn asked in awe.

“A lot of luck and a little help from some amazing people,” Liam answered thinking back wistfully to Louis and Niall whom he was surprised to feel that he would dearly miss and wished he had met under different circumstances.

“You see, there are patterns on the sceptre that was found with the remains of the King and we discovered that the patterns are actually codes and the key to decrypting it can be found on the pyramid wall,” he continued as he started explaining the two keys to the code as well as the patterns on the sceptre and how they represented words and numbers, which he believed showed the location of the treasure.

“That’s pretty amazing,” Zayn said after Liam finished his explanation. “No wonder they took you. I’m sure a lot of people would want to get their hands on that information.”

“Yeah well. I’ve been trying to buy some time so that I could figure out some way to escape or I don’t know, get rescued or something but they are getting impatient. They’re giving me one more chance to tell them everything I know. And honestly I’m not sure I’ll survive that session.”

“So are you going to tell them?” Zayn asked worriedly.

“I can’t,” Liam said. “If I tell them then _I know_ they’re going to kill me.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I was going to tell them that I do know where the treasure is and that instead of telling them where the treasure is exactly, I’ll take them to it. All I need before that is a computer to verify the location. They’ll _have_ to take me along because otherwise I won’t disclose the rest of what I found. You say this place is like a fort right? So maybe once we’re out of here and on our way to the treasure, there won’t be as many people and maybe then, I’ll try to make my escape.”

“It’s still not going to be easy, Liam,” Zayn said shaking his head recalling all his escape attempts and how easily it failed because the numbers were against him.

“I know that. I still have to try though.”

“They’re gonna kill you.”

“They’re gonna kill me anyway,” Liam said softly as his eyes brimmed with tears again. “There would be absolutely no reason to keep me around after I give them the full info. They’re gonna kill me, Zayn. I have no doubt about that. In fact, once they get their hands on this treasure I have a feeling they won’t even need to keep this dig site running anymore and God knows what they’ll do to you and the rest of the workers. So I have to try,” he continued, shrugging. “My family made a lot of sacrifices to give me a second chance at this life. I’ve put them through so much. I don’t want to put them through losing me this way, Zayn. After everything, I can’t just give up. They don’t deserve that,” Liam said looking at Zayn determinedly. “My brother, Harry,” Liam added sadly thinking about his curly headed sibling. “He’s amazing and I love him but I know him well enough to know that even though it wasn’t his fault in the slightest, he’s going to feel bad and even guilty about what happened and I just really don’t want that to eat at him you know. I’ve given him and the rest of my family enough grieve in this life that I don’t want that to carry through even when I’m gone,” he said. “So I have to try. And if by some miracle I do make it. I’ll come back for you, Zayn. I’ll get help and I’ll come back for you. I promise.”

“And if you don’t make it?” Zayn asked swallowing.

“Then you have to promise me you won’t just give up. Get the other workers to join in and make your escape. There is strength in numbers, right? Because if they don’t need you anymore, they might very well kill you too. So promise me, Zayn. You’ll at least try.”

“I don’t have anyone to go back to,” Zayn said looking down. His heart wrenching at the painful reminder of it all.

“Well then, don’t do this for anyone. Do this for you, Zayn. You have your whole life ahead of you. You can finish that English degree and be whatever you always wanted to be and do the things that _you_ want to do. Don’t just give up and let someone else dictate your life and whether you live or die. Promise me, Zayn.”

Zayn looked at Liam, eyes raw with emotion. Before he could reply however, the door to the cave suddenly swung open, badly startling them.

“Aww how sweet!” Damian said walking in with a smug grin on his face.

“You can just forget about the little escape plan of yours kid because you won’t get the chance to leave this place at all!  I think we have all the information we need actually, thanks to Zayn here.”

Liam watched in utter horror as Damian reached to the tray of food and took a small bug like device which was secured under it.

“Liam, no,” Zayn whispered shaking his head, as hands grabbed him, dragging him to the door.

“You did a great job extracting the info we needed,” Damian said patting Zayn’s shoulders which he immediately flinched away from in anger. “We heard everything. Including the code in the patterns of the sceptre and a very detailed account on how to decrypt it. Quite ingenious might I add,” Damian said pleased.

“And you’re absolutely right, Liam. Since we have the information, we don’t need you anymore. So enjoy your food,” he said as he kicked the tray of food over to Liam. “‘Cause it’s gonna be your last.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Son of a bitch!” Zayn yelled hitting the stone wall of the servants’ sleeping quarters with his fist. They used him! They bloody used him! He cursed in anger.

And now Liam won’t have the chance to make his escape. They were going to kill him and they were going to kill him soon. He heard Damian shout the order to dig up a grave for tomorrow and his heart fell to the very pit of his stomach.

He remembered the look of shock and horror on Liam’s face when Damian had walked in and he knew he had to do something. He could have kicked himself for not realising something fishy was going on when they specifically asked for him to look after Liam. Liam was not going to die because of him. He needed to do something and he needed to do it soon.

***

“The name’s Horan, Niall Horan,” Niall said with a smug grin looking at himself in the full length mirror as he tugged at the collar of his newly rented tuxedo. “These threads are great,” he said as he turned to Louis and Harry who were putting on their own rented tux. “I must say, we look pretty darn awesome,” he said turning to Louis, who proceeded to throw a pillow directly at his head.

“Hey. Don’t mess with the hair. It took me ages to get this right,” he said as he turned to remedy the damage to his locks.

“Stop admiring yourself and come help us with these bloody things,” Louis said as he tried to tie his tie just right but not succeeding in the slightest. He turned to Harry and saw that he too was having trouble with his bow tie.

“You okay?” He asked as Harry tugged exasperatedly at his bow tie. “I should have gone for the easier option instead of this bloody bow tie. I can’t seem to get it right, my hands are shaking so bad,” Harry said frustrated.

“Hey, it's okay. Niall and I will fix that for you. Just calm down.”

“By ‘Niall and I’ you know he only means me, right?” Niall said as he moved Harry’s hands aside and proceeded to tie Harry a perfect little bow tie thanks to countless practice attending formal lunches, dinners and events with his Dad and his family.

“Yeah, I’m sorry.  I’m just really nervous. Do you think we got everything we need from that camping and hiking store?” Harry asked worriedly. “Usually, Liam’s the one that gets all the gear sorted and checked before we go camping or hiking. I’m usually kinda rubbish at it so I hope we didn’t forget anything.”

“Relax Harry, I think we got more than enough stuff to last us an entire week I would think,” Louis said looking at the pile of gear that they had bought earlier that afternoon.

“I hope you’re right,” Harry said as he started pacing, whilst Niall turned to fix Louis’ tie.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,“ Harry said shaking his head.

“Are you having second thoughts?” Louis asked looking up.

“What? No. Of course not. I’m just kinda nervous. Which is an understatement of the year,” he said as he held up his hands in front of him to see that it was indeed shaking. “I’m just really really glad you guys are here with me. I honestly don’t think I could do this alone.”

“It’s okay, Harry,” Louis said grabbing his shaking hands into a tight grip to stop it from shaking. “We’re all in this together and we’ll get through this together,” he said looking at Harry as Harry looked back tears pooling in his eyes.

“Thank you,” Harry said earnestly, “to the both of you.”

“Hey don’t mention it. I’ve grown ridiculously fond of your brother myself. That kid is primed for corruption and a little life experience, well the fun kind anyway, and I’ve only just started sinking my hooks in,” Louis said grinning. “And when I start something, I make sure to see it through,” Louis finished eliciting a smile out of Harry.

“I can testify to that,” Niall piped in. “I’ve got a police record to show for it, thanks to that corruptive influence,” he said as a pillow sailed its way to land right smack on his face.

“Well on a more serious note,” Louis said as he put on his jacket and started walking to the door. “Are we ready to do this?” he asked.

“I’m scared,” Harry said honestly. 

“I know, Harry. I guess we all are,” Louis said more serious than Harry had seen him in a while. “But we have to do this, right? For Liam?” he said as he put his right hand in front of him followed by Niall who put his hand on top of Louis.

Harry took a deep breath and joined his own in the pile of hands waiting for him. “For Liam,” he said resolutely, knowing that it was do or die and the latter was not an option right now.

***

“No. No, no, no, no,” Liam thought as he desperately pulled at the metal chain linked to the cuff in his hand. “This couldn’t be happening,” His heart beating wildly as he heard footsteps outside the door and he couldn’t help but jump as the doors flung open to reveal a smiling Bruno. “It’s time kid,” Bruno said as Liam backed away from the approaching figure as far as the chains would allow him.

“They’ve given me the task of getting rid of you once and for all and let me just say that it is an absolute pleasure,” Bruno said with a sly grin. Liam swallowed, his mind racing through all the times of being cornered and beaten and just plain being in horrible situations and he knew that he had never known absolute and abject fear and panic as he was feeling now.

When Bruno reached him, he let survival instinct take over and started kicking and struggling against the rough hands that grabbed him, but Bruno was stronger and managed to pin him down to unlock the cuff and immediately replaced it with a thick rope, this time binding both his hands together in front of him.

He struggled frantically as he was hauled through the cave into wide open air where the heat of the desert hit him like a ton of bricks. Kicking and screaming he was dragged across the expanse of the desert to the outside parameters of the camp. As they approached, he saw in horror at what appeared to be a freshly dug grave-like hole. With whatever remaining energy he had left, he doubled his struggles against his captor causing the arms around him to tightened. Taking opportunity of the close proximity, he slammed his head back full force hearing a sickening crack as he felt Bruno’s arm release him suddenly. He heard a barrage of curses and immediately broke into a run taking advantage of the distraction. In his weakened state, he didn’t get far before he felt the full force of Bruno’s body weight land on him causing him to fall hard on the ground completely knocking the wind out of him. Before, he could catch his breath, he felt a shift in the weight and the unmistakable feel of the butt of a handgun slam into the side of his face causing an explosion of pain that threatened to drag him down into unconsciousness.

He screamed in pain as a hand grabbed a fistful of his hair and dragged him the remainder of the distance before throwing him on the ground right next to the open grave.

He didn’t realize he was crying until he felt wetness trail unabated down his face. His breath hitched, as his eyes searched wildly for something, anything, to fight back. He hissed as he felt a sharp kick to his side as he was flipped over to face Bruno who was looking down at him with a bloodied nose and a gun in hand.

With his heart beating violently, he started crawling backwards as he watched Bruno sneer down at him, clearly taking great pleasure in seeing his fear. He saw the glint of metal approaching nearer from the corner of his eyes just as Bruno raised his arm to point the gun he was holding, right at his head. Taking a deep breath, he quickly turned sideways to grab at the shovel he had seen right next to the freshly dug grave, and swung it wildly with his bound hands. The metal hit Bruno and the gun he was holding, sending it sliding away out of reach. Completely blindsided by the hit, Bruno cursed heavily and dove to the side to grab at the gun that had been flung from his grasp, allowing Liam to lift the shovel again and with supreme effort he swung it sideways aiming directly at Bruno’s head and meeting its target. 

Without even waiting to see Bruno fall, Liam turned quickly to put his hands on the ground in front of him to help push himself up and make his escape. As he got on one knee however, he felt a hand wrap around his other ankle, pulling him roughly backwards. Before he could react, Bruno had roughly flipped him over on his back and immediately straddled him to pin him down. With his hands bound, he could do nothing to stop the volley of angry punches to his head and face as his captor let out a barrage of expletives. 

He could feel his consciousness slipping when the punches stopped and amidst the pain and the fear, he was hit with a wave of anger and regret that this was how it was going to end.

“Any last words you son of a bitch?” Bruno sneered, breathing heavily as he positioned his finger on the trigger of the gun he had retrieved.

“Go to hell,” Liam spat as he squeezed his eyes shut just as Bruno pulled the trigger.

Suddenly, a loud explosion rocked the stillness of the desert around them. Liam let out a gasp as his eyes flung open. Amidst what sounded like screams and chaos of the nearby camp, he felt the shift in body weight as Bruno got up abruptly, also startled by the blast. It still didn’t register with him what was happening but through his tear filled eyes, mixed with the blood that was dripping down his face, he saw smoke in the distance and a sound that he couldn’t quite make out. Then all of a sudden, appearing from the cloud of smoke, was what seemed to be a white stallion galloping at full speed in his direction and on it was a guy, armed with a large stick. Too stunned to move, he saw Bruno turn in surprise at the sound of the approaching animal and before he could do anything, the guy on the horse swung his stick upwards hitting Bruno squarely at the side of his head and flinging him backwards right into the open grave. Slowing down and turning back his horse to where Liam still laid on the ground, the guy reached out his hand.

“Take my hand Liam. Hurry!”

Blinking up in confusion, he was surprised at the face that came into view. “Zayn?”

Before he could say anything more, he felt himself being lifted to his feet where the bonds in his wrists were quickly sliced away.  He somehow managed to clamber up the steed to take a place behind Zayn. He immediately held on for dear life as he heard Zayn yell “Hold on tight!” before he turned the horse and spurred it to ride off, away from the chaos of the campsite and into the vastness of the desert, leaving only a trail of dust behind them.

Ramses Manor:

“Mr. Horan. What an absolute pleasure to have you and your friends here,” Mr. Ramses said as he greeted them at the entrance to the Ramses’ manor. “I was pleasantly surprised to get the call from your father’s company about his interest in our charity. Thank you for your support. You don’t know how much this means to us,” he said as they introduced themselves to him.  “Please come on in, and let me show you our little collection of antiquities and what we have planned for the evening.”

As Niall played the dutiful son of an interested donor to Mr. Ramses who showed them around, Harry and Louis quickly scanned the rooms and the people to see what they were up against. “Damn,” Louis said leaning over to whisper at Harry’s ear. “They’ve got security all over this place,” he said eyeing the several security type guys lingering and patrolling around the area overseeing the goings on of the event.  “This is not going to be easy,” he said as Harry swallowed nervously. “You going to be okay here with Niall?” He asked turning around to look at Harry. “I’m going to go see whether there are any connecting points that Niall can hook up to, to access the main system.”

“Yeah. I’m good,” Harry said determinedly shaking himself off of the nerves that he was feeling. “I need to find where the amulet is,” he said eyes scanning the room where the antiquities collection was on display. “Just be careful, okay?” he said as Louis nodded and excused himself from Mr. Ramses’ company.

“Mr. Ramses,” Harry said as the host walked them to the other side of the display room to show a painting that was part of his collection. “You say that you’ll be putting up some items for a charity auction this evening. I don’t suppose you have a listing of the items?”

“Why yes, of course,” he said as he handed Harry a booklet of the items up for auction. “We’ve been very fortunate to have great people support our cause and even donate some of the items we have here. Even, if it’s not listed for the auction, we would still consider any offer for the items on display. The proceeds all go for a good cause.”

“That’s good to hear,” Harry said as he eagerly flipped through the booklet. If it was listed, maybe they didn’t have to steal the amulet after all. His heart dropped when he got to the end of the booklet and it wasn’t any of the items listed. He almost jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Good God. Don’t do that!” Harry whispered as he saw that it was just Louis again coming back to join them in the antiquities room.

“Sorry,” Louis whispered gesturing to both Harry and Niall. “I’ve got good news,” he said as Niall crowded in to join them since Mr. Ramses was distracted by another guest. “They’ve got access points practically everywhere. There’s even a USB access point in the bathroom, which is perfect cause I’m pretty sure that’s the only place where there is no security camera.”

“That’s excellent,” Niall said taking his phone out. “It’s all I need,” he said as he turned to head to the restroom but was stopped as Harry grabbed his arm.

“Wait guys. This whole thing is dependent on the amulet being here. It’s not part of the collection on display and it’s not in the listing of items up for auction. How are we going to steal something that isn’t even here? Where the hell could it be?” He asked looking around him at a loss as to where else to look.

“Um. I think I know,” Louis said as he put a hand to Harry’s shoulder and turned him around to a woman who was walking to them smiling.

“Ah. You must be Robert Horan’s guest. You have no idea how pleased we are to have you here. I’m Mrs. Ramses,” she said extending her hand in greeting, but all Harry could focus on was the large stunning amulet that she was wearing around her neck.

“Shit!” Harry said as they watched Mrs. Ramses walked off to greet another guest. “Shit, indeed,” Louis said under his breath, at the sudden turn of events.

“So what are we going to do?” Niall asked. “We can’t abort now,”  he said turning to Harry who was still looking at the back of Mrs. Ramses in shock.

“Harry stay with us,” Louis said snapping him out of his thought.

“Oh God,” Harry said as he turned back to them. “No. We can’t abort. That’s not an option here. We need the amulet.”

“Well then you realise that you’re gonna have to steal it right from under her nose right, Harry? Like literally,” Louis said with a raise eyebrow. “You think you can handle that?”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Harry said with a groan. “Let’s just get into the system and do what we planned and I’ll try to see what I can do about Mrs. Ramses,” he said as he took a deep breath.

“Okay then. Unless you tell us otherwise, system failure targeted at 2200 hours like we agreed. I hope that’s enough of a distraction for you to get your hands on the amulet,” Niall said as he looked at his watch to make sure.

“Me too,” Harry said as he grabbed a champagne flute from a nearby waiter and swallowed it down in one gulp. “Wish me luck,” he said as he straightened his jacket and walked off to where Mrs. Ramses was standing.

***

“You have an amazing collection here, Mrs. Ramses,” Harry said as he approached handing a flute of champagne to Mrs. Ramses that she happily accepted. “It’s an amazing thing what you and your husband are doing.”

“Thank you. Harry was it? This collection of antiquities that we have, isn’t just what we collected along the way, we’ve also had some great people help us out and contribute to our cause by donating some of the items. They trust us enough to make sure that all the proceeds go to a good cause,” Mrs. Ramses said taking a sip out of her champagne glass.

“And you have quite a varied range of items as well,” Harry said gesturing around him. “I couldn’t help but notice but is that amulet you’re wearing also one of the items,” he asked hoping that it sounded as nonchalant as possible. “It looks absolutely stunning,” he said as Mrs. Ramses blushed putting a hand around the necklace.

“I have to admit, this is one of the items given to us that I have a soft spot for.”

“Oh,” Harry said. “So will you be putting that up for auction or something?” Harry asked trying to hide the deep-seated hope that the answer was a yes, from reflecting in his voice.

“Oh no. Not this item I’m afraid. This is the only thing that we have made an exception to in all these years that we’ve been doing this,” she said not noticing the fall in Harry’s face which he quickly tried to school. “It was my sister’s favourite item, you see,” she said as she brushed the amulet with her fingers wistfully.

“Was?” Harry asked frowning.

“Yeah. She died a while back,” Mrs. Ramses said with sadness clearly in her voice. “I was very close to her,” Mrs. Ramses said looking down and clutching the amulet around her. “This was her favourite piece. I just couldn’t bring myself to part with it. I know in a way, it's selfish, but I guess that’s my way of trying to hold on to her,” she said looking back up at Harry who had turned stock still.

“Are you okay?” She asked in alarm as she saw the look on Harry’s face.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I’m so sorry,” Harry said trying to speak without his voice hitching. “I– I have a brother myself and I just can’t imagine losing him. I’m really, really sorry for your loss.”

“Aww honey. It’s okay. It was a long time ago. She’s the reason why we have this charity in the first place. It’s a special thing. A sibling bond. She wasn’t just my sister, she was my best friend. When she was diagnosed with the illness that took her away from us, the worst thing was not being able to do anything to save her. It’s a terrible feeling not being able to do something for the one you love, you know? I wouldn’t wish that feeling on anyone,” she said and was surprised to see the tears pooling in Harry’s eyes as he quickly wiped them away and leaned in to give her a warm tight hug.

“I’m sure your sister would have been very proud for what you have done in her memory,” he said earnestly as he swallowed a lump in his throat.

Mrs. Ramses put down her glass of champagne and tilted her head looking at Harry contemplatively. “Dance with me Harry,” she said as she held out her hand and led him to the dance floor.

***

“Any problems?” Louis asked as Niall joined him back in the sitting area that was overlooking the dance floor.

“It was a bit tricky, but nothing I couldn’t handle,” Niall said with a smirk. “Now that we’re in, I’m able to control the entire smart house system from just my hand phone. Pretty cool, right?”

“Yup. Pretty darn cool,” Louis replied patting him on his back. After all these years he was still amazed at what the blond was capable of doing once you get him in front of any technology. Although he would never actually say it out loud, he was ridiculously proud of him.

“How’s Harry doing?” Niall asked bringing him back from his musing.

“He seems to be doing quite well actually,” Louis said motioning to Harry and Mrs. Ramses who was still on the dance floor. “Mrs. Ramses seems to be quite charmed and hasn’t left his side in the last fifteen minutes.”

“Good. So listen, once I hit the kill switch at 10pm, we have exactly ten minutes before the system rights itself, so make sure to head towards the back exit like we agreed before those ten minutes are up. I’ll be waiting in the car where we left it,” Niall said as he looked anxiously at his watch. Just a few minutes to go.

“Got it. I’m just going to casually walk across the dance floor and ‘accidently’ bump into Mrs. Ramses when the lights go out. Hopefully that would give Harry an opportunity to grab the amulet. I’ll be right behind you after that,” Louis said putting his drink down and assessing the way to the exit hoping to memorise it so that he can make it out of there once the light goes out. 

“I hope Harry remembers the plan and the exit route,” he whispered under his breath as he looked across the dance floor to where Harry was still dancing with Mrs. Ramses.

***

Harry could feel his heart beating wildly and hoped that Mrs. Ramses could not feel it as they slow danced to a song that was playing.  He had his hands on her shoulder and he was only about a few millimetres away from touching the amulet.

He looked up to catch a glimpse of Louis who gave him a discreet nod from across the room to indicate that everything was on target as planned.

He swallowed as he remembered his conversation with Mrs. Ramses and about the value of the amulet to her and her memory of her sister. He was going to strip her of the amulet and probably the very thing of value that she had left of her sister and he just hoped that she could forgive him for this. He looked at the clock on the wall which read that it was a few minutes to 10 pm and braced himself for the chaos that was about to erupt.

***

They had been riding for a couple of hours and darkness had fallen leaving them with only the light of the full moon. Zayn knew they had to stop and they had to stop soon, not just because of the drop in temperature that came with the night time, but because there was no way their horse could keep going without some rest and water.

He could feel Liam leaning heavily on his back with his arms still around Zayn’s waist although their hold had slackened a bit.

“We need to stop,” Zayn said as he brought the horse to a slower trot.  “I think, we’ve put enough distance between us and the bad guys that we should be okay to take a break for the night. Let’s just look for a good place to sleep.” He said as he spurred the horse to what seemed like a tall cluster of rocks right ahead of them.

“Wait,” he said bringing the horse to an abrupt stop all of a sudden. “Is that smoke I see?” he asked Liam excitedly.

When there was no answer Zayn nudged his elbow back against him but the movement caused Liam’s body to start to tilt dangerously to the side. He felt a surge of panic when he realised Liam wasn’t conscious and he scrambled desperately to grab a hold of him only to have Liam’s weight pull the both of them down onto the hard rocky terrain.

Landing heavily with Zayn twisting his body at the last minute to take the brunt of their fall, Zayn gasped as he felt the wind get knocked out of him. He quickly shifted Liam’s prone body off of him and turned to look at the pale face of his companion.

“Oh God,” he said swallowing down his panic. “Please don’t die on me, Liam. Please,” he begged as he desperately looked for a pulse.

***

“What in heaven’s name is going on?” Mrs. Ramses said as the lights suddenly went out filling the entire room with darkness which was immediately followed by the blaring sounds of the fire alarm which brought on some screams from the crowded room. “Oh!” she exclaimed as she fell forward into Harry’s arms just as someone bumped her from behind making her lose her balance.

Harry quickly grabbed a hold of her as she stumbled forward, taking the opportunity to snap the chain of the amulet and immediately pocketing it into his jacket.

He didn’t realise he was holding his breath and was suddenly pushed aside himself as the crowd of people started making their way clumsily through to the nearest exit.

Some security guys with torchlights were trying to police the crowd of guests and directing them to the various exits although there were some strays that were still hanging around and trying to look for handbags and other personal belongings before they joined the rest of the guest as they were messily ushered out.

Breathing heavily, Harry clutched the amulet that was in his pocket tightly as he tried to remember the exit in the blueprints that Niall had printed. The car was parked about a couple meters in a back road to the property and he knew that there was an exit somewhere at the back of the house but amidst all the chaos of the people moving in and around the darkness coupled with the blaring alarms, he lost track of where he was.

Taking a deep breath as he tried to get his bearings, he leaned back against a wall to let some people pass through but almost stumbled when the wall, which wasn’t a wall at all but was in fact a door, slid open behind him into what seemed to be a reading room which he was relieved to see from the flickering lights from the alarm, led to the back garden.

He needed to get out of there and he needed to get out quick. He moved quickly to the heavy curtains at the back of the room and with shaking hands pushed the curtain aside to reveal a large sliding door heading out to the garden.

He looked at the handle and reached out for it hoping against hope that it was not locked.

“I didn’t take you for a thief, Harry.”

Harry almost jumped out of his skin as he turned around abruptly. His heart clutched tightly when he saw Mrs. Ramses looking at him with a grim expression amidst the flickering lights.

“Tell me it’s not about the money,” She asked ignoring the blaring alarms.

“It’s not,” Harry said shaking his head looking at her pleadingly.

“That amulet means a lot to me. You know that and you still took it,” Mrs. Ramses said walking closer.

“Please… It’s, It’s not what you think,”  Harry said shaking his head as he backed away from her.

“Give me a reason why I shouldn’t call security in right this minute,” she said as she watched Harry.

 “I know you have absolutely no reason to believe me but I _need_ this to save somebody very close to me,” his voice shaking.

“Oh really?” Mrs. Ramses said as she walked closer to him. “Who?”

“My brother,” Harry said his voice hitching as tears trailed its way down his face.

“His life is in danger and I need this to help me find him. You have to believe me. He’s the only brother I have and I don’t want to lose him, please,” he said not caring to hide the fact that he was now full on crying.

“And why didn’t you just ask?” Mrs. Ramses asked frowning.

“I didn’t think you would believe me and I didn’t know whether I could trust you.”

“Trust me? You’re the one stealing and you’re questioning whether you can trust me?!” Mrs. Ramses asked shaking her head in disbelief.

“I tried to go to the police. I did. But it turns out the person responsible for my brother’s disappearance has deep connections and I just don’t know who I can trust anymore,” Harry said looking at her pleadingly.

“You realise you sound crazy right now, don’t you?” she said as she looked at Harry trying to see any tell-tale sign that he was lying.

After a while Harry dropped his gaze from her scrutiny. “If you do decide to turn me in, please know that this is all me. The guys I was with had nothing to do with this, okay? I’m the one responsible for this. Not them and not anybody else,” Harry said with a small voice as Mrs. Ramses looked at him frowning.

It seemed like a lifetime before she said anything but Mrs. Ramses finally broke the silence by turning slowly to the sliding door beside them and to Harry’s complete and utter surprise, slid it open.

“Go,” she said as Harry looked at her wide eyed.

“What?” Harry said completely taken aback by response.

“Save your brother. Do what you need to do,” she said reaching out to him and leading him to the sliding door she had opened.

Harry looked at her through his tears and was stunned to see that she was absolutely serious.

“But– but,“ Harry stuttered.

“But nothing. Don’t make me change my mind,” Mrs. Ramses said resolutely as she held out the sliding door ajar.

“I don’t know what to say,” he said earnestly as he swallowed down a sob. “But, if I get through this, I will get this back to you, I promise.”

“Then make sure you get through it. Whatever the hell it is,” she said as Harry mouthed a silent thank you and made his way out of the Ramses’ compound and to the car where Niall and Louis were waiting.

***

“Where the hell is he?” Louis said nervously tapping his fingers on the steering wheel of their rented car as he and Niall waited for Harry anxiously in a back road behind the Ramses’ property. It’s been more than five minutes since we shut down the system, right?” he said turning to Niall who looked at his watch.

“Yeah. Just a few more minutes and all systems will be back up,” Niall said as he peered towards the back gate to the property. “Wait. There he is,”  Niall said as he saw Harry’s running figure approaching the car.”

Louis let out of sigh of relief as he quickly started the engine. “Good lord you got us worried there,” he said as Harry got in and shut the car door behind him.

“Let’s just go, please,” Harry said as he slumped into the back seat as they immediately took off back to the hotel.

“Did you get the amulet?” Louis asked as he turned around but was taken aback to see Harry with his head buried in both hands.

“Dammit,” Harry said as he hit the back of Louis’ seat startling both Niall and Louis in the process. “I’m an idiot,” Harry said as he pressed both palm of his hands to his eyes as he squeezed them shut. “I can’t even do one thing right.”

“Oh God, Harry,” Louis said swallowing as he turned back to focus on his driving. “It’s okay. We’ll find an alternative. We’ll figure this out, alright? We still have the location coordinates. We can do this without the amulet,” he said as he glanced back in the rear view mirror at Harry who was slowly shaking his head.

“Yeah, Harry,” Niall added turning around. “We can still do this without the amulet. We’ll find Liam, okay? It’s gonna be alright.“

“No. No. I got the amulet,” Harry said shaking his head as he handed it over to Niall who looked at it in confusion.

“Wait. You got it?”  Louis asked turning around.

“I did. But Mrs. Ramses caught me. She knows I stole it,” Harry said leaning forward between the two headrests of the front seats. “I’m sorry guys. I’m so, so sorry,” Harry said apologetically, regret clearly etched on his face.

Louis glanced back quickly to see whether there was anyone following them. “But you got away,” he said more as a statement than a question seeing as they were driving away back to their hotel this very minute.

“Only because she let me,”  Harry answered miserably.

“What!?” Louis and Niall exclaimed as they looked at Harry.

“I don’t know. I tried to explain to her that we needed it to save Liam and she was pretty sceptical but after a while she relented and told me to just go. I don’t know whether she’s going to call the police on us or something but shit, she bloody knows. She knows we did it, I just. I’m  sorry.”

“Good God Harry. Don’t be sorry. We didn’t get arrested and we got the amulet. I would say that that was a pretty successful mission if you ask me,” Louis said. 

“What if she calls the authorities or something? She knows our names for crying out loud. Even if I was the one caught red handed, we came together and I honestly didn’t want you guys to get dragged into this, but I screwed up,” Harry said berating himself.

“Wait. This is all because you’re worried about us?” Louis asked frowning.

“How many times do we have to tell you that we’re in this together. One for all and all for one, okay?” Louis said shaking his head.  “Seriously, don’t beat yourself up about it. We knew what we were getting into.”

“Yeah and if she didn’t turn you in right there and then, I’m pretty sure she won’t turn you or any of us in at all,” Niall added. “Maybe she really did actually believe you and wanted you to have it so you can help Liam.”

“Yup,” Louis nodded in agreement. “Don’t sell yourself short Harry. You may be a terrible thief and liar but you’re charming as heck and maybe she couldn’t help but want to help you out.”

“Oh God,” Harry said leaning back against his seat. “I really hope so,” he said swallowing and hoping deeply that that was true. He already felt guilty about Liam, he wasn’t sure he could handle it if Louis and Niall got into trouble because of him as well. 

“You know Harry, things may not have turned out the way we hoped that it would, but I think it ended up turning out exactly the way it was supposed to, somehow,” Louis said as he turned into the hotel driveway.

***

Liam regained consciousness to an incessant buzzing in his ear. His head felt heavy and he tried hard to open his eyes but It was like something was pulling him, dragging him back into the pit of darkness. Fighting to clear his head, the buzzing slowly formed a noise that sounded a lot like his name. He blinked heavily as he tried to make out his surroundings but he was too tired and the pull back to darkness was strong. He remembered seeing a face looking down at him and hearing  some words being said.

He furrowed his brows in confusion trying to make sense of it but the effort was just too much and he gave in to the pull and darkness consumed him once again.

***

“Well, this is as far as we go, I guess,” Louis said paying the driver of the truck they had hired as he finished unloading their stuff.

“Be careful out there,” the driver said as got back into his vehicle and drove off.

The truck had driven them as far out into the desert as it could before it became too dangerous to go any further. From then on they had to go about it on their own.

Louis looked at the three ATVs that the driver had helped unload off of the truck. “Well we’ve got enough petrol to last us four days max, let’s hope our estimation is correct and we can cover the distance to the location in less than that.”

“I just hope that the terrain is conducive enough to drive these bad boys all the way to the location,”  Niall said as he loaded his backpack onto his ATV.

They had started off way before the crack of dawn and the sun was only just beginning to rise in the horizon. After the events of the previous night they had made sure to get a good couple of hours sleep in so that they could get the early start. With the amulet in hand, they were determined to focus all attention towards getting to the treasure location as soon as possible and finding Liam.

Based on their estimation, it would take about two days to reach the place if by ATV and even longer if they had to go by foot. They had enough food and water to last them about five days so it was crucial that they get a move on and not let anything delay them as they only had a two or three day buffer or so.

Niall still had an important phone call to make that he wasn’t looking forward to at all. He had to tell his Dad the whole story and get him to inform Interpol and to try and get help to meet them at the treasure location and get them safely out of there since the police weren’t really an option. They had talked about making the call before they left but Niall knew that once he told his Dad everything, his Dad would have done whatever it took to stop them from going out to the desert themselves and try to rescue Liam instead of waiting for help to arrive. Because of that they made sure to bring a satellite phone equipped with GPS locator so that Niall can contact his Dad when they were already out in the desert.

“Are we ready lads?” Louis said as he revved up the engine.

“Let’s do this,” Harry nodded as he put on his own goggles and hit the accelerator, spurring the ATV ahead leaving a trail of sand in his wake, Louis and Niall following suit.

 

***

“Liam,” Zayn said softly as he wiped a wet cloth on Liam’s forehead. “You need to wake up,” he said as he felt Liam shift under his ministration. Putting the back of his hands on Liam’s neck he felt relieved to find that Liam was no longer burning up like we was last night. Liam was already in bad shape when they made their escape but add that to the hours of riding in the blazing hot sun and with wounds that were exposed to the dust and grime of the desert it was no wonder that his body finally gave out on him.

“Hey there,” he said smiling gently as he saw Liam slowly blink awake.

“Zayn?” Liam asked confused as he turned to look at his surroundings. “Where are we?” he asked voice groggy from sleep. They were in what seemed like a tent with wooden beams holding it up and he was lying on top of some really comfortable layers of sheets spread out on the ground.

“Don’t worry. We’re safe,” Zayn said as he reached for a bottle of water and handed it to Liam who took it gratefully. “You passed out and fell off our horse last night. Do you remember?” he asked as Liam looked at him trying to recall the events of the previous night. “Luckily some camel herders had set up camp nearby and offered us their tent and some food and water.”

“Wait,” Liam said as his eyes opened wide with realisation. “We escaped?!”

Zayn nodded with a smile. “We did, it was a close one, but we did.”

“You saved my life,” Liam said remembering the events of the previous day. “What did you do?” he asked looking at Zayn in awe as he slowly pulled himself up to join Zayn in a sitting position.

“I untied all the horses and set them loose into the desert, well except for Friday, of course.”

“Friday?” Liam asked confused.

“The horse,”  Zayn said as he helped Liam up.

“Right,”  Liam nodded as he remembered the beautiful white stallion that was their ticket out of their prison.

“Then I made sure to slash the tires of all the vehicles at the place so that there’s no way for them to get out of there except by foot. And then, I stole a stick of dynamite from the back of a truck and set the satellite and communications tent ablaze. I made sure that no one was in it though,” Zayn answered. “It worked like a charm. The element of surprise really helped because they didn’t know what hit them. I’m just glad I got to you on time.”

“You did all that?” Liam asked wide eyed as Zayn nodded.

“Thank you,” Liam said wholeheartedly as he lunged forward to wrap his arms around a surprised Zayn in a full on hug. 

It has been so long since somebody had touched him other than to hurt or injure him and Zayn felt himself sinking into the embrace and slowly returning the hug, gripping onto Liam tightly who had started crying.

“I really thought I was dead,” Liam said his breath hitching. “I don’t know how I can thank you,” he said voice muffled as his face was buried in Zayn’s shoulders.

“Shit, Liam stop crying, you’re making _me_ cry,” Zayn said rubbing Liam’s back. He couldn’t believe it either. He was free. They were free. And he knew he would never have been able to do what he did if it wasn’t for Liam. For the first time in a long time he allowed the shell he had kept up around his heart to slowly melt away, and he slowly leaned further into the hug and let his tears fall.

“I’m sorry,” Liam said as he reluctantly pulled away after a while wiping his eyes as Zayn shook his head indicating it was okay, as he wiped away his own tears.

“I was so scared, Zayn. I really thought I was dead,” Liam shuddered as he remembered the previous day’s events.

“I honestly thought you were dead too, Liam. I don’t think I could have lived with myself if you had died. Listen, I didn’t know about the listening bug they put on the tray, okay? I had no idea. You have to believe me. I wouldn’t do something like that,” Zayn said shaking his head.

“I didn’t doubt it for a second, Zayn.” Liam said squeezing Zayn’s shoulders and looking at him earnestly to show that he meant that truly. “It's not your fault, Zayn. Please don’t blame yourself for any of it. Besides, that doesn’t matter now. We escaped and it’s all down to you.”

“Technically, we’re not out of the woods yet though,” Zayn said as he took a quick peek outside the tent to see the sun making its presence known indicating that it’s past sunrise but still a few hours till noon and turned back to Liam who was looking at him in confusion.

“Are we in the woods?” he asked brows furrowed.

“What? No. We’re in the desert. It’s just a saying,” Zayn said as Liam rolled his eyes at himself.

“Of course. Sorry. I’m still a bit disoriented.” 

“How are you feeling?” Zayn asked looking over Liam who still had bruising all over his face and torso although most of the wounds had closed.

“Much better actually,” Liam answered as he moved his limbs to test his level of soreness.

“Good. The herders helped make some strong poultice for you to drink and put on your wounds. I seriously couldn’t have done it without them last night. When I carried you in last night I honestly thought it was too late to save you.”

 “You actually had to carry me here?” Liam said wincing.  “God Zayn. I’m so sorry and I honestly cannot thank you enough.”

“Just promise me you’ll never scare me like that again, okay?” Zayn said getting up to take a pile of clothes as he handed it to Liam.

“Here, the herders were nice enough to give us some clothes. We’ve got to get a move on. We don’t want to lose the lead we had over the bad guys. You okay to travel again?”

“I’m a bit sore but I should be okay. The faster we get a move on, the faster we get back home.”

“We’re gonna have to go by foot now though,” Zayn said as he took a bag that was lying next to him and started filling it with clothes and food and some water containers that the herders had helped supply them.

“I had to give them Friday in return for everything they did for us. It was the least I could do. They say the nearest city is about a two to three days walk from here and they packed us food and some necessities enough to last us the journey. Let’s hope we get there safely without any trouble.”

 ***

“Well that went well,” Niall said with a sigh as he put his satellite phone back in his backpack after speaking to his Dad.  They had stopped to take a quick break to grab a bite to eat before they continued on their way. They were making good time and were anxious to travel as far as they could whilst they still had light but knew they couldn’t postpone calling Niall’s Dad any further.

“I’m really sorry Niall,” Harry said feeling guilty.

“What? No, don’t worry about it. He’s not angry at us. He’s just angry and freaked about the whole situation. I don’t blame him. He’s not just worried about us, he’s also worried about the people on his ship and we didn’t really give him a lot of time to do what he needs to do to get help. Anyway, he’s on it now. I’ve given him the coordinates and the estimated time that we’ll be there and he said he’ll figure out the logistics. He wants us to keep the GPS on at all times though so that he can track us wherever we are.”

“Bobby’s always been ace. He’ll do whatever needs to be done,” Louis said patting Niall by the shoulder. “I don’t know about you but I feel a lot better now. Just so you know Niall, if he does ship you off as punishment again, you’ve always got me as company,” Louis said with a grin.

“And me!” Harry said chiming in. “And Liam as well,” He added determinedly. “If you’ll have us, that is.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Niall said with a smile as all of them got up to pack up and make their way again after the short break.

***

“You okay,” Zayn said turning to Liam as he saw him clutch his sides as they made their way through the terrain.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” Liam said reassuring. “I still can’t get over what you did to break us out. That was amazing, Zayn. Truly,” he said looking at Zayn.

“Stop it,” Zayn said shaking his head with a small smile.

“I’m serious. You’re amazing,” Liam said earnestly still in awe at the fact that he did all that all on his own.

“Well, at least you know,” Zayn said grinning as he watched in amusement as Liam’s eyes widened in surprised at the joke before it was immediately replaced with crinkled lines as he broke into a peal of laughter.

“Oh God,” Liam said wincing as he doubled over hands on his sore ribs.

“Whoa, there,” Zayn said immediately reaching out to lend a hand and make sure Liam didn’t topple over.

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” Liam said through his laughter, smiling up at Zayn who was also laughing along.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you smile, let alone laugh,” Liam said after a while, wiping his eyes.

“Yeah. I don’t think I’ve smiled or laughed in the last six months actually,” Zayn said as realisation hit him of what an absolutely nightmare the last six months had been. “Haven’t had a reason to,”  he added serious again.

“Well let’s make sure there’s plenty of reason to from now on,” Liam said nudging him causing him to break into a smile again as they continued on their track through the desert.

***

“Louis slow down!” Harry yelled as they drove their ATVs over the desert. “We need to take a break and stop for the night!”

Harry was pleased that they were making good time but the sun was setting and despite his anxiousness to get to their destination and find Liam, he was worried about their safety if they continued on as darkness began to set in.

“What? No,” Louis said motioning for Niall and Harry to hurry up and catch up with him. “We got almost an hour of light left. Let’s make the most of it!” He said turning as he revved his engine and sped off into the distance.

“Goddammit Louis,” Niall said shaking his head and sharing a knowing look with Harry as they followed after Louis.

They had been lucky that the terrain they travelled on so far was level and smooth and they had no problems with the ATVs. In fact from the distance, all they could see was a vast amount of desert spreading across the horizon.  This bode well of their continued use of the ATVs but it didn’t mean that they didn’t have to be careful. They were in unfamiliar territory away from civilisation and he couldn’t help but feel that they needed to find a nice place to set up camp and stop for the night. He was just about to call out to Louis and Niall to put his foot down and insist that they do just that when he heard a loud yell coming right ahead of him.

He felt his blood drain as he saw Louis suddenly turn his ATV sideways in a desperate attempt to skid to a sudden stop but the speed caused the ATV to topple over and the momentum made Louis lose his grip on the vehicle. Harry watched in horror as he saw Louis being flung away just as the ATV finally skidded to a complete stop.

“LOUIS!!” He heard himself scream as he and Niall made their way to where Louis had fallen but the nearer they got the more the panic set in and he could feel his heart bursting in his chest as he was met with the edge of what appeared to be a very steep sand dune with a 30 feet drop of almost a ninety degree angle.

“Oh no no no,” he said swallowing back panic as he saw where the ATV laid unmoving but Louis was nowhere in sight.

***

“He’s down there Harry!” Niall said grabbing his backpack and rushing to the edge of the dune and without even a second hesitation, slid and stumbled his way down the thirty foot sand dune with Harry close behind. They could see Louis sprawled at the bottom of the dune seemingly unmoving and they wasted no time to reach him, landing heavily beside his prone body not caring at the fact that both had tears streaming down their faces.

“Louis!” Harry yelled leaning over to hear whether there was a heartbeat.

“Wake up!” Niall said as he grabbed Louis’ shoulder giving it a slight shake. “Louis, please!” Niall said with his heart in his throat as he anxiously tried to look for a pulse. 

“Please, please wake up, Louis! Please be okay. Dammit. Wake up!” Harry yelled as he swallowed a sob when there was no response.

“No! Don’t you dare leave us!” Niall yelled sobbing openly. “I won’t bloody allow it,” he said grabbing at Louis shirt willing him to wake up.

“It would really help if you guys could stop yelling in my face,” came a croaked reply as Louis slowly blinked open his eyes to see the shocked faces of Niall and Harry right in front of him.

“Oh my God, Louis,” Harry said eyes wide in surprise as he and Niall launched himself on him crying in relief.

“We thought you were dead,” Niall said sitting back into the sand trying to get his heartbeat back to normal.

“Are you okay?” Harry asked looking him over. “Are you bleeding anywhere?”

“I don’t think so,” Louis said rubbing his head. “But my head and my shoulders are sore as hell,” he said looking up the sand dune which seemed to go on forever from where they were sitting.  He couldn’t believe he fell from way up there. He was pretty shaken to be honest as the momentum of being thrown from his ATV had him flying through the air and falling and rolling down the steep dune till he came to a skidding stop as the ground finally leveled up. He must have blacked out because the next thing he knew he had two people screaming at him to wake up.

“Be careful,” Harry said reaching out to Louis as he swayed amidst a sudden wave of dizziness that swept over him when he tried to sit up.

“So um. I think, we can have that break now,” Louis said with a sheepish grin.

“You don’t say,” Niall said shaking his head as he stood up to look around them.

“Well this is a good place as any,” he said taking off his backpack and setting it down. “There’s only desert as far as I can see and at least this spot here has the dune behind us which will protect us from the wind coming from that direction.”

“You sit here and rest, Louis. Niall and I will set up the tent,” Harry said as he threw Niall the instructions whilst he unpacked their equipment.

“Are you sure you guys know how to do this?” Louis said as he saw Niall trying to read the instructions which apparently were in Arabic.

“Don’t worry. We got this,” Harry said as he handed Louis a water bottle and a paracetamol for his headache and started work to set up the tent.

“Well if you insist,” Louis said with a shrug as he sat back against the dune and watched Niall and Harry work.

***

“Zayn, I think we need to stop,” Liam said as he bent down to put his hands on his knees breathing heavily. He was exhausted and his injuries weren’t helping. He hated being the one to slow them down, but his ribs were killing him.

“Yeah, of course,” Zayn said handing Liam the water bottle he was carrying. “The sky is beginning to get dark anyway. Let’s check out the clearing just behind those rocks there.”

“I’m sorry if I’m slowing us down,” Liam said glumly as he followed Zayn to the clearing.

“What? You’re not Liam. Don’t worry about it. Besides, I’m exhausted too,” Zayn said as he put his bag down beside a rock by the clearing and sat heavily on the ground. “I could use some sleep right now actually,” Zayn said moving to get his bag beside him.

“No! Zayn, don’t!” Liam said stopping him.

Zayn’s hands froze mid reach as he looked in alarm at Liam who was standing in front of him.

“Don’t move,” Liam said as one hand reached to slowly unbutton the overshirt he was wearing.

“Um. What are you doing?” Zayn said confused as to why Liam was slowly undressing in front of him.

“Just don’t move,” Liam warned as he slid his shirt off one shoulder and slowly did the same for the other.

“When, I count to three, I need you to take my hand okay.”

“What?” Zayn asked bewildered wondering if Liam had finally lost it after all those hours walking under the hot sun.

“Just do it,” Liam said as he started counting. When he reached three, in one swift motion, Liam threw his shirt on the ground right next to where Zayn’s bag was and immediately reached for Zayn and yanked him up on his feet and holding him tightly  as he led him quickly away from the rocks.

Looking back behind him, Zayn saw something wriggling under the shirt that Liam had thrown down and watched in horror as a deadly viper snake slither its way from under the shirt and away from his bag and disappear under the cluster of rocks.

“Oh my God,” Zayn said not quite believing what he just saw. It was unmistakably a horned viper, one of the deadliest snakes there was and he knew only too well the effects of a bite from a horned viper as he had witnessed it first hand when one of the workers at the camp had been bitten. The guy didn’t even have a chance and he had died within the day.

“I didn’t even see it,” he said turning to Liam wide eyed.  “Thank you,” he said sincerely.

“Man, that was a close one,” Liam said letting out a breath of relief. “Let’s get out of here. I think it may have a nest here or something,” he said as he inched forward to quickly grab Zayn’s bag and ran back to where Zayn was standing.

“I guess we have to look for another spot.”

***

“All that time and this is what you guys managed to set up,” Louis said eyeing the tent suspiciously.  It was a little lopsided and looked like it was about to collapse at the littlest gust of wind.

“Shut up, Louis, and just get in, okay?” Niall said peeking out from inside the tent. “I think Harry and I did a pretty decent job. Better than you could have managed anyway,” he smirked.

“Hey. I’ll have you know that I could have had the tent up in less than five minutes, if you had given me the chance,” he said indignantly as Niall gave a snort of laughter.

“Please, I’ve never seen anyone more content leaning back and doing nothing than you were whilst Harry and I were struggling with the bloody tent.”

“How’s your head?” Harry asked as Louis grinned at Niall and making himself comfortable next to Harry but trying not to move too much for fear of the tent collapsing on them.

“Better thanks. It’ll be good as new after a good night’s sleep.”

The temperature was beginning to drop and they instinctively moved closer together to keep themselves warm.

“You know Liam would have been able to set the tent up in less than five minutes,” Harry said as he laid back staring into the darkness that was slowly enveloping them.

“Not with those instructions he wouldn’t,” Niall said shaking his head. “I couldn’t make head or tails of it and there weren’t even any picture illustrations.”

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure he still would have,” Harry said with a soft smile. “He’s really good with stuff like that.  He was a boy scout after all.”

“Seriously?” Louis asked turning to Harry. “Well of course he is!” Louis continued not waiting for an answer. “What isn’t he good at?” He snorted thinking about their little basketball match a couple of days earlier.

“Well then I guess we better find Liam soon, because the only way we’ll survive the next couple of days in this god forsaken desert, if we have his boy scout skills to get us through.”

“Pretty much,” Niall chimed in in agreement.

“I wish it were that easy,” Harry said softly.

“Maybe it will be, Harry,” Louis said as he shifted into a more comfortable position. “We’ve had a difficult couple of days I think we’re due a little break from lady luck. You never know.”

“I hope so Louis. I really hope so.”

***

“Damn it. I really wish we had a compass. I’m not sure we’re going in the right direction,” Liam said looking around and seeing only desert and sand as far as the eye can see. They had used the sunset the night before and the sunrise that morning as a general guide based on the directions given by the herders, but in the sweltering heat where the sun was above them, it was difficult to tell whether they were still on the right track. They did not have the best night’s rest as both were paranoid after the incident with the snake and their tiredness together with the blistering heat was getting the best of them.

“Here, have some water,” Zayn said handing Liam one of the bottle of water he was carrying that the herders had given them.

“That’s okay,” Liam said wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. “At the rate we’re going, I don’t know how much longer we’ll be till we reach the nearest town. I just hope we have enough supply of food and water till then,” he said looking at Zayn worriedly.

“Well then at least take this,” Zayn said as he ripped both the sleeves of his over shirt and giving one to Liam as he tied the other one around his own head and motioning for Liam to do the same. “It’ll at least give you some protection against the blazing sun. Don’t want to get a heatstroke or anything,” he said in explanation.

“Look, there’s some rock formations up ahead. Let’s see whether we can rest and get some shelter from the heat a little bit,” Zayn said as he led Liam to the spot. As they reached the place they saw that it was a clearing with smattering of tall rocks around it, which was perfect as it provided shelter not only from the sun but also from any gust of wind that may come every now and again.

“Wow. I wish, we could stay here for the night, but we still have a couple hours of light before darkness falls,” Liam said looking around him. “If we stay we might lose our lead against the bad guys.”

“Do you think they’re still after us?” Zayn asked as he put his bag down and plopped down to lean his back against a rock. “They have the info they need.”

“I don’t know. Maybe. We kind of know who they are though. It’s not like they hid their identities. Then again, they seem to be under a time crunch to get to the treasure, so hopefully they focus their resources on that instead of us. But let’s not take any chances though,” Liam said as he gave an involuntary shiver at even the thought of crossing paths with those psychos.

“Yeah I guess you’re right. A little break and let’s get back on our way whilst we still have light,” Zayn agreed.

“Do you suppose, we could probably rest up there on the rocks outcrop above. It’s still sheltered from the sun with the bigger rocks around it. I just don’t feel right being in the open in this clearing down here,” Liam asked looking around him.

“No prob,” Zayn said grabbing the bag and making his way behind Liam to the rocky outcrop above the clearing.

***

Liam’s eyes flew open when he felt a hand cup his mouth firmly. He quickly blinked to clear his vision only to see Zayn looking down at him with a finger to his own mouth warning him to stay silent.

His heart was beating wildly when he heard the voices. There were several of them and he looked at Zayn in alarmed as Zayn quietly made his way to get a better view whilst motioning for Liam to stay where he was.

Zayn slowly made his way to the edge of the rocky outcrop, his senses were on full alert when he heard snippets of the conversation in English. His heart dropped when he heard the words “treasure” and “running out of time” being mentioned.  “Dammit. How did they already catch up so soon?!” He cursed peeking around for some sort of vehicle that the owner of the voices may have taken but finding none. From where he was perched at the top of the rocky outcrop, he could see movement in the clearing below him where he could make out at least two people making themselves comfortable as they sat down to take shelter from the blazing sun.

His eyes roamed the area and he was relieved to find that there were no obvious weapons or guns although that didn’t mean that the visitors weren’t armed. His hand went to the hilt of his own knife, the only thing that he had brought with him from the camp and he swallowed nervously. He had never used a weapon on anyone before and he hoped that when it came down to it, he had it in him to fight back with whatever means necessary. It wasn’t just his life at stake anymore and there was no way that he would allow Liam and him to get captured again when he knew the only outcome from that was surely death.

He contemplated sneaking out quietly with Liam but their main exit involved climbing down the rocky outcrop and going past the clearing where their unwanted visitors were currently sat so that was out of the question. They could alternatively stay hidden quietly where they were right now but if their visitors even thought of exploring the rocky outcrop and their surroundings, they would be screwed. Shaking his head, he knew that he didn’t have a choice. He had to take them down and make their escape. There seemed to be just two of them so hopefully the element of surprise would be on his side again and they won’t know what hit them. When one of them got up from where he was sitting, leaving the other lying down and seemingly sleeping, he knew he had to act quick.

***

Niall had left Louis to take a wee and to join Harry who was looking at the horizon with a map and Louis’ compass in hand trying to figure out the remaining distance they had to cover.

“It’s going to have to be a short break,” Harry said as he approached. “We’ve got at least two more hours of light left that we can use before we stop for the night. We’re still almost a day away from the treasure location.”

Before Niall could say anything in response, they heard a thud behind them followed by a muffled scream and what seemed to be a loud scuffle. “Louis!” they said in unison as they looked at each other in alarm quickly running back to the clearing where they had left Louis and their belongings.

***

Louis struggled under the weight of his attacker who almost got in a good punch before Louis managed to roll him over.  Quickly turning, he reached out for a nearby rock to use as a weapon but his attacker was quick and was on his feet in no time. A swift kick from his attacker saw the rock flying from his hands and he felt the weight of his attacker as he straddled him and this time getting a good solid punch to his jaw. Disoriented, he suddenly heard a loud scream and saw Niall flying and landing on his attacker causing him to release Louis and stumble backwards. He heard his attacker yell in pain as Niall, who was holding on tightly on his back, bit into the attacker’s shoulders. He startled when he felt a hand on his shoulders and looked up to see Harry’s panicked eyes. “I’m fine. I’m fine,” he said brushing off the concern as he scrambled to a sitting position. “Go help Niall!”

Immediately Harry sprang to action as he reached for the rock that Louis had dropped moments ago before getting up to join Niall.  Just as Harry launched himself at the attacker who still had Niall gripping on his back holding on for dear life, they heard a loud yell from above them screaming for them to stop.

All of them froze and turned around to where the voice came from.

Harry’s jaw dropped as he could hardly believe what he was seeing.

He blinked several times to make sure that what he was seeing wasn’t an illusion but sure enough, there making his way gingerly down to the clearing was his missing brother!

“Oh my God,” he whispered. Dropping the stone he was holding, he ran to meet Liam halfway and immediately launched himself to engulf Liam in a hug.

They both fell backwards into the hug as Liam’s legs buckled not quite able to take on the full body weight of his brother but neither cared as they embraced, both shedding tears of joy and relief.

 “It’s really you,” Harry said crying. “You’re alive!” he said head buried in Liam’s shoulders refusing to let Liam go.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Liam said hugging Harry just as tightly not caring that he too was crying into Harry’s hair.

They stayed that way for a good few minutes just breathing in each other before Harry pulled away to look at Liam properly. “Are you okay? What did they do to you?” Harry asked eyeing Liam in concern.

“I’m fine. I promise,” Liam said smiling through his tears. “I’m so glad to see you though. I didn’t think I’d see you again,” he said his voice hitching as he pulled Harry closer again and just relishing in having his brothers arms around him.

“God Liam. I’m so sorry,” Harry said tearfully. “This is all my fault, I should have listened to you that night. I’m an idiot and a horrible brother,” he said breaking into a fresh rack of sobs.

“What?” Liam said as he pulled away from Harry looking at his tear stained face and wiping Harry’s tears with the pad of his thumb. “No! This is my fault. I was the one that should have listened to you that night. Don’t even think this was your fault in the slightest, Harry. This was all on me. I’m the idiot. I’m just sorry I had to put you through this,” he said as he pulled Harry in for a hug again as Harry tried to voice a protest.

***

“Good Lord,” Louis said shaking his head as he watched the scene with Niall and Zayn who had quickly put two and two together. “Can we please stop arguing about who is the bigger idiot here and give me and Niall our hugs already!” he said as both Liam and Harry laughed and opened an arm each to wrap themselves around Louis and Niall.

“Can’t believe you guys came to look for me. I don’t know what to say,” Liam said shaking his head still in a state of disbelief. When he had crawled out from his hiding space, he was shocked as he looked down to see Zayn in a full on fight with somebody but it didn’t take long for him to recognised the familiar frame and features of his friend and any doubt was pushed aside when Niall came running and flying onto Zayn’s back and grabbing for dear life. His heart stopped in his throat when Harry followed right behind him, not quite believing what he was seeing. He only found his voice when Harry launched himself at Zayn clearly ready to attack.  Speaking of…

 “Wait, wait guys,” Liam said raising his head from amidst the four way hug to look for Zayn who was standing at the side awkwardly looking at them. “I want to introduce you to someone. This is Zayn by the way,” Liam said pointing at Zayn who waved shyly with one hand as all attention turned towards him. “He saved my life. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him,” Liam said smiling as the boys broke away from their hug and went to offer a handshake and a pat in the back and in the case of Harry, a good solid hug, to the surprise of Zayn.

“Um. Sorry about the whole attacking thing just now,” Zayn said wincing and silently grateful that he didn’t have a chance to take out his knife before the crazy blonde one full bodied jumped on him. “I thought you were the bad guys.”

“Ditto,” Louis said as he raised his hands to touch his busted lips as Zayn looked on apologetically. 

“Niall didn’t hurt you too badly did he,” Louis said motioning to the angry looking bite mark on Zayn’s shoulders.

“I’ll live,” Zayn said with a small smile.

“You better let me clean that bite wound anyway lest you wanna catch rabies or something. I swear, Niall’s a freaking animal,” Louis said as Niall handed him a wet towel and some antiseptic he got from his backpack.

“Sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I’ve never bitten anyone in my entire life.”

“I sure hope not,” Zayn muttered as Louis sniggered loudly, lifting down the shoulders of Zayn’s shirt but stopped abruptly as he saw the scars on his back.

“Um. It’s fine. You don’t have to,” Zayn said about to shift away. 

“No,” Louis said insistently, recovering quickly as he shifted to get a better angle and began to clean Zayn’s wound with the help of Niall.

“Thank you,” Zayn said earnestly. He couldn’t remember the last time somebody cared enough to take care of him and he closed his eyes as he swallowed a choke as he let Louis and Niall clean his wounds and patch him up.

“Your face,” Harry said as he turned to Liam and lifted Liam’s chin and turning his head slowly. “What did they do to you? Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Liam said waving Harry’s hands off. “Just some bruises. It’ll heal,”  he said as he started filling Harry, Louis and Niall on what had happened, brushing aside the look Zayn gave him when he made light of the more gory details of his kidnapping not wanting to worry Harry more than necessary.

“I can’t believe the police are in on it,” Liam said shocked as Harry, Louis and Niall in turn told their version of the story and what got them there. “I’m so glad we found each other here because the police definitely would have been the first place me and Zayn would have gone to once we reached the safety of town.

“Yeah. That’s the scary part. Their reach seems to be everywhere. With help from Niall’s Dad hopefully we can get Interpol involved,” Harry said.

“Thank you for saving Liam,” Harry said earnestly turning to Zayn who was sat beside Louis and Niall near the fire. “That was an amazing thing that you did.”

“Yeah. I’m not sure who saved who to be honest. I would have never had escaped and actually done all that if it wasn’t for Liam. For a while I forgot there was a world filled with opportunities and other great things out there and I owe it to Liam for reminding me of that,” he said turning to Liam who gave him a shy smile.

“Goodness. How long were you in there for?” Niall asked.

“Too long,” Zayn answered as he turned back to look at Niall and Louis, the latter staring at him hard.

“I’ve seen you before,” Louis said as he put down his bottle of water.

“Um. Really?” Zayn asked confused trying to rack his brain as to whether Louis looked familiar.

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure,” Louis said as he suddenly got up.

“I’m sorry but I’m drawing a blank,” Zayn shrugged. If you can’t tell from my accent already, I’m from northern England if that’s any help. Bradford, in fact.  I take it you’re from the north as well, right?” 

“I am actually but that’s not it,” he said rifling through his bags and taking out a crumpled piece of paper and looking at it.

“I knew it!” he exclaimed as he handed the paper to Zayn.

“You’re the guy on the missing person flyer!”

***

Zayn looked at the flyer in his hands perplexed. “I don’t understand. Who would put a missing person flyer out for me?” he said looking up in confusion as Liam came over to look at it.

“Well your mom, I reckon,” Louis said matter of fact not realizing that Zayn had stilled and had turned pale.

“His mom’s dead,” Liam said quietly putting a hand on Zayn and squeezing his shoulder.

“Oh no. I’m so sorry,” Louis said turning to look at Niall and Harry in confusion. “I could have sworn I heard her say she was looking for her son when she was showing the Colonel this flyer. I could be wrong though.”

 “No. No, Louis. You’re right,” Niall said chiming in. “I definitely heard her say ‘my son.’ And to be honest, she looked a lot like you, Zayn.”

“Wait. You said she was in a coma when you were taken, right? Maybe she didn’t die Zayn,” Liam said wide eyed.

“Oh my God,” Zayn whispered as he looked down at the flyer. “Don’t even joke,” he said shaking his head as he looked up at Louis and then Niall, with tears in his eyes.

“Honest to goodness we’re not, Zayn,” Harry said as he came over. “We all saw her. She did look like she had an injury recently because she was walking with a cane but pretty sure it’s your mother. We all heard her say so herself.”

“Zayn!” Liam said eyes lighting up with excitement as he turned to put both arms on Zayn’s shoulders. “She’s alive! Your mother’s alive!”

“She’s alive?” Zayn whispered looking at everyone’s faces who in turn all nodded in affirmation before the tears started falling and he collapsed in Liam’s arms in a rack of sobs. “I can’t believe it,” he said through his sobs. “She’s alive!” he repeated as he pulled back from the hug to look at Liam in amazement. “I thought she was dead. All this while, I thought she was dead,” he said shaking his head in disbelief.

“I’m so happy for you, Zayn,” Liam said laughing as he himself was in tears. “Now you can go back home.”

“Now I can go back home,” Zayn whispered nodding his head as he leaned in back into the hug.

***

Liam looked over at Zayn who was talking animatedly with Louis. After hearing the news about his mother, it was like he was a whole new person with a smile that actually reached his eyes and lit up his entire being. Liam smiled thinking that if anyone deserved some good news after what they had been through, it was certainly Zayn and he could not be happier for him.

He turned to Harry and Niall who were looking through the items of food that they had left to see what they could scrounge up to feed four hungry people. It was slim pickings and they had no choice but to settled on a can of baked beans and several pieces of bread but none of them complained as they were more than happy to eat their meagre meal in the company of each other knowing that they were safe and on their way home.

“So what’s our best bet to get out of here?” he asked, watching Harry and Niall who were studying a large open map that they had laid out on the ground.

“Well we’re not going back to the city, that’s for sure. That’s more than three days of backtracking. The treasure location is less than a day away and that was the coordinates I gave my Dad initially as a pick up location,” Niall said looking up from the map. “So I say let’s just head over there as planned and wait for help to arrive. If we’re lucky maybe we’ll find some treasure along the way,” Niall added with a shrug.

“Wait. Is that a wise idea though? The bad guys would be headed in the same direction, right? Their focus is getting to the treasure asap, so do we really want to head in the same direction and risk running into them again?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Louis said interrupting the conversation as he and Zayn came closer to take a look at the open map. “We forgot to mention this but, if they are looking at the numbers that you decrypted purely as coordinates, then it would lead them right smack in the middle of the Mediterranean sea right here,” he said pointing to the map as Liam and Zayn looked on with a confused expression. “Luckily for us though, I’ve put my vast nautical knowledge to good use and manage to figure out that the numbers are actually mathematical equations that will show the location of the treasure only when converted,” he smiled smugly.

“And you managed to do that?” Liam asked in awe.

“It wasn’t easy but I sure did. So unless, they have someone on hand who firstly can figure out that they’re not coordinates in the first place and secondly, solve the formula itself, I don’t think they would be anywhere near the treasure location.”

“That’s wicked,” Zayn said leaning back.

“Yeah,” Liam said shaking his head in disbelief. “I guess it was just as well things happened the way it did. I don’t reckon they would be too happy finding out that the numbers aren’t pure coordinates.”

“Let’s not think about them though and focus on getting to the pick-up location tomorrow. If we leave early immediately at sunrise, we should be there before noon even,” Harry said as he studied the map again.

“The location is right in the middle of the desert though. What sort of transport arrangement would your Dad be providing though?” He asked looking up at Niall.

“I don’t know, but I’m sure he’ll figure something out. Maybe a helicopter. Could also be a boat since it’s only a couple miles away from the red sea,” Niall said with a shrug. “We’ll just have to wait and see. Honestly, as long as we get out of here I wouldn’t care if it was a bloody camel. I just want to get back home safe and hopefully, maybe, find the hidden treasure ‘cause that would be awesome.”

***

“Wait. This is it? Louis asked looking at his compass in bewilderment. “We’re still in the middle  of nowhere,” he said looking at the rest of the boys who had a mixture of confused and disappointed looks in their faces.

They looked around them and all they could see was an empty desert littered with some rocky terrain and nowhere that seemed likely to be any place for a hidden treasure.

“Maybe it’s underground or something,” Niall said as he took off his heavy backpack.

“Well this sucks,” Louis said as he joined Zayn who had taken a seat on a nearby rock.  “We don’t have the time or equipment to start digging for hidden treasure.”

“How sure are you guys about the location?” Zayn asked breaking the silence that had befallen the group as they sat resting their tired bodies and taking the opportunity to quench their thirst.

“Pretty sure,” Louis said looking up. “I did those calculations myself and repeated it twice, just in case.”

“Plus, everything else fits with the rest of the clues,” Harry added. 

“Well considering it’s been hundreds and hundreds of years, you have to take into account shifts in terrain and movement of the land, right? “ Zayn said trying to recall his lessons in physical geography.

“Oh great,” Louis said mentally kicking himself for not even thinking about that. “Shit. That would mean it could be anywhere within, what, 50 km radius of this area? Or maybe more?!” he said incredulous. “We were fools to think that we would easily find the treasure once we had the location. It makes sense that it’s probably buried or hidden somewhere. And now that there’s an even wider search area there’s no way we would be able to search for it!” he said shaking his head.

“Yeah,” Liam said agreeing. “I think we’re gonna have to hand this over to the relevant authorities and let them take over.”

Sighing, Niall took out his satellite communicator. “The last message from my Dad is that he is arranging  transport to this location that we gave him and that he will do all it takes to expedite help. I’ll guess we’ll just have to sit tight and wait.”

***

“Louis, don’t move.“

“Huh?  What?” Louis said blinking awake confused at what was happening.

“Shh,” Harry said as he pointed to something on his shirt.

He was about to jump on his feet and scream bloody murder thinking it was something poisonous like a scorpion or something when the thing fluttered away off of his abdomen and onto Niall’s backpack.

“What the heck?” he said looking at it confused. “Is that a bloody butterfly?” he asked disbelieving, waking the others who had dozed off.

“What’s a butterfly doing in the middle of the desert?”  Niall asked sleepily as he looked up from under his cap.

“Exactly,” Harry said as he quickly got up to his feet and put his hand out to help Liam up. “Come on, we can’t lose it,” he said as his eyes followed the butterfly who was making its way to God knows where and making little stops on the way.

“Um. What are we doing?” Louis said as he looked at Harry and Liam who were collecting their stuff and seemingly preparing to move.

“We’re gonna follow it of course,” Harry said as he put on his backpack.

Niall just gave Louis a shrug and put on his own backpack and started walking behind Harry, Liam and Zayn who was already in front of them carefully following the path of the butterfly.

“You know. With the long exposure to the heat and the lack of water and food, it was bound to happen. I mean, I figured at least one of us would crack and completely lose it but I didn’t think ALL of us would,” Louis said shaking his head as he followed behind the rest of the boys.

“Shut up Louis,” came the chorus in reply as Louis raised his brows quietly impressed by how in sync they were and also nodding his head as if they had proven his point.

They had been walking for about ten minutes and the landscape had changed a bit to a more rocky terrain and a smattering of plants and grass every now and again when Zayn suddenly stopped and motioned for the others to stop as well. “I hear something,” he said as the others perked their ears to listen.

 “Hey. Me too!” Niall said excitedly. “It sounds like running water,” he said breaking into a sprint to climb to the end of a pile of rocks where the sound seemed to be coming from. “Whoa,” he said as he looked down over the rocks to see a small stream flowing steadily all the way to the edge of a precipice where it then formed a small waterfall before continuing to flow along a stream or rather a small river in the valley below it.

“I knew it! There’s no way there would be a butterfly in a desert without there being water or other life forms nearby,” Harry said as they rushed down the rocks and headed straight to the stream of water each splashing their faces and washing their neck and arms with the coolness of the stream water.

“I think you better inform your Dad of the slight change in location,” Louis said as he joined Zayn and Niall clean their respective cuts and wounds from the grime and dust of the desert.

Niall nodded and took the binoculars hanging from his belt loop. He walked to the edge of the precipice beside the waterfall to get a better idea of the area surrounding them. “We’re actually not that far from the sea he yelled to the others as he looked into the binoculars. We’re about a couple of kilometres away from some cliffs over there beyond which, I’m pretty sure is the red sea,” he said as he turned around to Harry who was walking towards him to see what he was seeing but before he could do anything else, he suddenly felt the ground beneath him give way.

“NIALL!!!” Harry yelled as he watched in horror as the ground crumbled away from under the blond as he lost his footing and started to fall.

Reacting on instinct, he jumped quickly to grab one of Niall’s flailing hands landing heavily on his front but managing to catch a hold of Niall’s right hand in a really weak grip.

“Hold on Niall!” He yelled trying to not lose the grip as he felt his body slide forward headed down the edge.

Running to see the commotion, Zayn and Louis immediately jumped to grab a hold of each of Harry’s legs to stop him from sliding down any further whilst Liam grabbed Harry’s shoulders and inched closer to the edge to see Niall who was precariously hanging with one hand. He looked frantically around to find the rope that they had brought, but cursed when he remembered that they were in Niall’s backpack which was still on his shoulders.

“Niall, I need you to raise your other hand up to grab a better hold of Harry,”  he said as he could see Niall’s fingers slowly slipping from Harry’s grasp.

“I can’t,” Niall said with a grimace.

“You’ve got to get rid of the backpack, Niall,” Liam yelled down as he watched Niall try but fail as he was weighed down further by the backpack that was hanging on his shoulders.

“I’ll try,” Niall said as he tried to unhook the straps around his shoulders with one hand all the while trying hard not to jostle too much and lose his grip with Harry any further. It was tricky but he managed to release both straps of the backpack and as the backpack fell away he tried again to grab at Harry with his other hand and finally finding purchase after the second try.

Slowly Louis and Zayn pulled Harry backwards away from the edge and as soon as Niall’s head popped back over the edge, Liam helped grab him by the shoulder and pulled him all the way to safe ground.

 “Man. That was a close call,” Niall said panting heavily when he was suddenly engulfed in a big huge hug from all four boys.

***

“Please, don’t ever do that ever again,” Harry said as he grabbed the water from the stream that Louis had handed him and doused himself with it. “You nearly gave us a heart attack.”

“Hey, I nearly gave _myself_ a heart attack, okay? That shit was scary,” he said looking down at steep drop to the valley below it.

“My backpack’s gone though,” Niall said unhappily. “All my stuff was in that. Including the satellite communicator. I didn’t get a chance to tell my dad about the change in location yet.”

“Don’t worry Niall. I’m pretty sure there’s a way down to the valley that doesn’t involve climbing down the crazy steep ledge or going down the waterfall,” Louis said.

“Yeah. I’m sure we can find it once we find our way down there,” Harry said squeezing Niall’s shoulders as he got up to join Liam who was scouting around the surrounding area.

“That drop is pretty huge. There’s no way all the electronics in there wouldn’t be smashed to pieces,” Niall said shaking his head. “I think we’re gonna have to go back to the initial coordinates, guys.”

“Or maybe not,” Zayn said from where he was lying down on his front looking over the ledge, careful to test the ground to make sure that it was solid and wouldn’t give way under his weight.

“Look,” he motioned for the Louis to come see.  “Right there.” He said pointing to the waterfall below them. “There’s like a little ledge protruding from behind the curtain of water. I’m pretty sure that’s your bag pack right there,” he said as the others peered down to what unmistakably looked like Niall’s green backpack resting on the ledge about ten feet below them.

“Well the good news is that I think, everything might still be reasonably intact. It didn’t fall very far at all,” Louis said stepping back from the ledge and turning to Niall. “But the bad news is, how the heck are we going to get to it without a freaking rope?”

“Hey guys take a look at this,” Liam yelled from the other side of the ledge, where he and Harry had been exploring.

“What the heck is that?” Harry asked pointing to what seemed like deep holes carved into the rocky wall. “I’m gonna try  something,” Harry said as he sat down on the edge of the ledge and carefully turned around to put his feet into one of the deep holes underneath it.

“Wait, Harry,” Liam said alarmed as he grabbed Harry’s arms. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked frowning.

“It’s fine, Liam. I’m good and I think I know what this is,” Harry said climbing down a little further. “They’re footholds! To climb down! It seems to go straight to the little ledge where Niall’s bag landed on the other side and I’m pretty sure it goes all the way down,” he said looking up at Liam in excitement. “Just a little bit further, and I’ll reach the ledge where Niall’s bag is,” Harry said yelling up as his voice was swallowed up by the sound of the waterfall the lower down he went.

“Just be careful please,” Liam said looking down anxiously to see Harry’s progress. 

His heart almost burst out of his chest when he heard Harry yell an expletive.

“What? What is it, Harry? Are you okay?” he asked in a panic as he saw Harry cling to the walls looking at the ledge where Niall’s bag had fallen.

“You’ll never believe this!” he heard Harry shout. Before Liam could shout back, he watched in astonishment as Harry stepped on the ledge near the curtain of water of the waterfall and disappeared.

“Harry?” Liam yelled down in alarm looking for any sight of Harry’s mop of curly hair.

“Dammit,” Liam said turning to Louis, Zayn and Niall who were also looking on anxiously. “I’m going down,” he said as he carefully took the footholds one by one and climbed down.

As he reached the ledge he saw immediately what Harry’s exclamation was about. The small ledge near the waterfall led into a huge cave located directly behind the curtain of water. He carefully stepped on the ledge and dodged behind the falling water to make his way into the cave where Harry stood grinning widely.

“This is amazing, isn’t it!” He said as Liam took in his surroundings. The cave was huge and he was pretty sure nobody would have known it was there unless they climbed down the ledge like they did. It was actually the perfect place for treasure to be hidden!

You don’t think the treasure is here do you? Liam asked wide eyed and excited.

“I don’t know,” Harry said smiling. “Let’s go explore!”

“Do you think we should go down there?” Niall asked looking at Zayn and Louis worriedly.

“I didn’t see them fall or anything, I think they’re still on the ledge or something, but I can’t see them,” Louis said trying to peer down to where Harry and Liam had disappeared.

“Wait. Do you guys hear something?” Zayn said silencing the others as he tried to figure out what he was hearing.

“What the heck? It sounds like Liam and Harry,” Niall said confused.

True enough, they could faintly hear Liam and Harry’s voices and started walking around to figure out where the heck it was coming from.

“Here guys!” Zayn yelled to the others as he crouched near some rocks located a little way back from the ledge of the waterfall. Clearing some of the smaller rocks out of the way, he saw what seemed to be a little hole in the rocky surface where Liam and Harry’s voice could be heard.

Immediately, they started yelling down the little crack in the surface, to get Liam and Harry’s attention.

***

“What the–?” Harry said clutching Liam’s arms who also looked around in astonishment as they heard the yelling. “Is that Louis and the rest of the guys?”

“Hey! Where are your guys? Are you okay?” they heard Louis yell.

“We’re okay,” Harry yelled doing a complete turn to see where exactly their voices were coming from.

“Look,” Liam said as he pointed to a small crack in the ceiling of the cave where a small sliver of light was coming through.

“We found a cave behind the waterfall!” Harry yelled back as they both moved closer to the ceiling crack.

“Awesome. Did you find the treasure?” He heard Louis reply excitedly.

“We’re looking around, we’ll let you know,” Harry answered sharing a smile with Liam.

***

“I don’t get it. This would be such a perfect place for the treasure to be hidden. A cave right behind a waterfall! I mean, if there’s a place that is perfect to be a secret location for hidden treasure this would be it! And yet. There’s nothing!” Harry said looking at the empty cave around him.

They had explored the huge cave and all its tunnel like branches and every nook and crevices in it and found absolutely nothing. There weren’t even any drawings or etchings on the walls of the cave.

The only thing in the cave was a slab of stone about waist high which was directly below the small crack in the ceiling where they could still faintly hear Louis, Niall and Zayn having a conversation.

Liam walked over to join Harry who was standing near the stone, and tried to recall all the clues to the treasure that they had discovered. If he remembered correctly, other than the coordinates or numbers which tell the supposed location of the treasure, the other clue they decoded were the words “Only time will tell.” Frowning, he repeated the words, as he tried to make some sense out of it.

He watched as Harry leaned down to blow the cloud of dust that had settled itself on the waist high slab of stone and wiped his hands over it to clear the surface. The only thing it revealed were two tiny ridges on it and nothing else.

He looked above the stone and saw the sliver of light peeking through from the crack in the ceiling and looked back down at the slab, thinking furiously. 

“Only time will tell!” he said as a sudden idea clicked in his mind.

“Guys!” Liam yelled up towards the opening. “Can you hear us from up there?”

“Yeah we can,” he heard the reply coming from above them.  “Have you guys found anything yet?” he heard Louis yell down.

“I need you guys to do something,” Liam replied instead.

“What is it?” Zayn said crouching down to the opening to hear Liam more clearly.

“I think there’s a stone that’s covering the small opening at the ceiling of the cave. I need you to move it. Can you do that?”  he asked as he heard some mutterings between Zayn, Niall and Louis but not hearing the words said.

“Umm. It’s pretty big, but we’ll try, okay? Stand back just in case there’s some loose pieces that fall through/” came the reply.

“What are you thinking?” Harry asked knowing the look on Liam’s face only too well as he turned Harry around to open the backpack Harry was carrying and taking out the notebook with all the notes on the treasure and its clues.

“Remember the decrypted words for the alphabet part of the clue? The one that says ‘Only time will tell’?” he asked pointing at the notes.

“Well you know how back in the day they use to tell time by the position of the sun? Like where it shines down and there’s this dial that somehow shows what time it is, based on the shadow it creates? Well what if this slab of stone is something like that? I mean, it can’t just be a coincidence that there’s a small opening on the ceiling of the cave directly above the stone, right?”

“So you’re thinking that this slab of stone is some sort of sundial that would indicate the time?” Harry asked thoughtfully.

“Or indicate the location of the treasure somehow,” Liam said. “I don’t know. It’s worth a shot right? But the only thing is there’s nothing on the stone. There’s no ‘dial’ as such,” he said knitting his brows in confusion as he ran his hands through the two ridges on the slab of stone.

“Oh my God!” He said as his head snapped up to look at Harry who had exclaimed the same thing, their eyes meeting, bright with excitement.

“You don’t think?” Liam said his words trailing because he knew that Harry had the very same thought as he saw him rummage quickly through his bag to take out the amulet.

Carefully removing the triangle shaped stone from the amulet, Harry slid it between the two ridges on the slab of stone.

It slotted in perfectly!

“What time is it?” Liam asked looking up at the sliver of light coming from the opening above where he could hear the rest of the boys working hard to move the block of stone that was covering it.

“Two minutes to twelve,” Harry said looking at his watch.

“Guys!! Liam yelled. We’ve got two minutes to move the stone. Hurry!!” he said as they saw the stream of light slowly widen as Niall, Zayn and Louis worked together to move the large boulder.

“I can’t believe we didn’t think of it earlier,” Harry said as he flipped through the notebook of clues again. “I think we just assumed that the etchings showing the picture of a pyramid with a sun shining right above it, depicts an actual pyramid but it doesn’t!! It depicts the triangle shaped stone in the amulet!” he said gleefully.

“Yeah, which is the same stone as that in the sceptre. And since the picture shows the sun shining directly above it, that would mean that it would have to be noon exactly,” Liam continued in excitement.

“On the day of the summer solstice” Harry added wide eyed.

“Which is today!” Liam said excitedly.

“Which is now!! Harry said looking at his watch which showed that it was exactly twelve o’clock and none too soon because it was followed immediately with a slow creak as the stone that was blocking the opening was finally dislodged and sunlight came down full stream through the opening, directly hitting the triangle shaped stone!

Liam grabbed on to Harry and didn’t realise he was holding his breath as they watched the stream of sunlight hit the stone and disperse into an array of different beams which were amplified towards the curtain of water that fell at the entrance of the cave.

And then…

……

……

nothing.

He looked at Harry frowning, who also seemed to be confused at what he was seeing. The stream of light just ended at the waterfall and that was it.

He wasn’t sure what to expect really but it couldn’t just end there right? He was about to voice his confusion when he heard loud hollering and yelling from above them.

“No way!! No freaking way!!” He heard Louis and Zayn yell from above them, followed by a “Holy Mother of Leprechauns!!” which they were pretty sure came from Niall.

Quickly, they went to the entrance of the cave to take a look around the curtain of water to see what the other boys were looking at and what they saw made their jaws dropped.

There, amidst a background of crisp blue sky was the most magnificent rainbow they had ever seen. It was a truly incredible sight of vivid and beautiful colours perfectly shaped with one end originating from right where they were standing and the other end about maybe a mile or so away.

“Wow,” Harry exclaimed as he turned to Liam who was looking at the rainbow with open mouthed wonder.

“So what do you reckon are the chances that there’s a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow?” Harry asked wide eyed and grinning widely.

“I don’t know but I reckon we ought to find out!” Liam said laughing as Harry hugged him both giddy from the realisation that they really and truly were on their way to solving the mystery of the missing treasure of King Imhotep.

##############

“Hmm. So I’ll probably wait right here and you guys can go ahead.” Zayn said looking at where the water flow suddenly disappear underground.

They had climbed down the waterfall and followed the path of the river till the point where the rainbow had ended and it turned out that the small river didn’t just end there. The flow of water continued on beneath some rocks and seemed to continue until God knows where.

All the boys were now stopped dead in their tracks looking at the river flow disappear underground and wondering what the heck they were gonna do next.

“There’s a huge rocky cliff right ahead and beyond that I’m pretty sure is the red sea. I really do think that this river continues on underground right up until it joins the sea. If there’s an underground river, than they may possible be an underground cave or something, and that would be a good a place as any for treasure to be hidden right?” Louis said excitedly.

“I mean, we’ve come this far, we can’t just stop now! And its not like we’ve got anything better to do whilst we wait for help to arrive. Come on guys!!”

“You do realise that we’re gonna have to actually go in the water to see where it leads to underground right?” Niall said as he got on his knees to see how big the opening was between the rocks where the water was sloshing through.

“I can’t see a thing!” he said shaking his head. “What if the distance is too long and you have to be submerged for a long period and there’s no way to resurface and you can’t get back in time? What if the opening gets too small and you get stuck between the rocks and you can’t get out?”

“Yeah. But what if it’s not! What if the only thing between us and a discovery of a freaking lifetime, is us getting a little bit wet! Come on guys. What do you say?” Louis said looking up at the faces of the other boys eagerly.

“I say, I’m sitting this one out.” Zayn said throwing his bag on the ground and sitting heavily on the nearest rock. “I don’t do water really well.”

“Aw come on Zayn!”  Louis said patting him on the back.

“I’m not saying you guys shouldn’t check it out though. I definitely would if I were you it’s just that I personally can’t okay. I can’t swim.” He said with a shrug.

“Oh man. Really?” Louis said deflated. “Well that sucks.”

“Yeah. Tell me about it.” Zayn said with a sigh.  “But seriously though. You guys should check it out.”

“Zayn and Louis are right.” Harry said turning to Niall and Liam who still seemed unsure. “We really should check it out. I think, we would be kicking ourselves, if we came this far and didn’t do that at the very least and I for one don’t want to have that regret hanging over me.”

“Ok.” Liam said relenting. “But we make sure we do this right ok. Safety first and all that.”

“Of course! Always.” Louis said excitedly as he helped Niall take off his backpack and take out the ropes and the water resistant torchlights that they had in there. 

 

“I ‘ll go.” Louis volunteered peering through where the water flowed into an opening in the rocks and disappeared into it.

“I ‘ll just crawl through the opening and find out where it leads to.” He said as he took off his shoes and took a few careful steps into the river. The water wasn’t that deep at all and even on his knees, it barely came up to his neck.

“Ok” Harry said as he handed over the waterproof flashlight to Louis as Liam finished tying a rope around his waist. “But be careful in there.  If the opening gets too narrow, or too long, give the rope one sharp tug and we’ll pull you back. “Let’s not take any chances okay.” He said firmly.

“Yes sir.” Louis said with a grin and a mock salute.

“I’m serious Louis!” Harry said hitting him in the shoulders. “With or without the treasure, all of us are going home safely in one piece and I mean ALL of us.” He said as the rest nodded in agreement.

“Ok. Sheesh. I’ll be careful okay, I promise.”

**********************

He had been crawling through the opening only for a little while when the rocky ceiling where the water flowed through was suddenly replaced with wide open space.

“Holy shit” Louis exclaimed to himself as he aimed the torchlight to look at his surroundings. The river had flowed through the opening in the rocks to what seemed like a large underground cave. He crawled out of the river to the banks inside the cave to take a better look and immediately screamed as he felt something wrap around his head.

“Aaargh” he yelled as he grabbed at whatever it was wildly trying to get at it.  It was only after a couple of frantic screams later that he realised that it was a large sticky cobweb. He shivered as he thought of the size of the spider that the huge cobweb belonged to and hoped against hope that is wasn’t anywhere stuck in his hair or something. After giving his hair a quick and thorough ruffle he stepped back and tried to calm his racing heart. Reaching for the torchlight that he had dropped in his battle against the huge cobweb he couldn’t help but thank his lucky stars that there was nobody else with him to witness that little scene.

Just as he was about to straighten up a glint of something caught his attention. He leaned down to look closely at what it was and after clearing the dirt and dust around it, he picked it up.

“No freaking way” he said in amazement as he looked at what was unmistakably an ancient gold coin that he was holding in his hands.

***************

“Wow you weren’t kidding.” Niall said as he looked around him in wonder. Louis had gone back through the opening to excitedly tell the boys of his findings and managed to get them all, including Zayn, to make their way through to the cave. Although reluctant at first, Zayn finally relented when Louis promised that there was no swimming involved and it was just a matter of crawling through a hole half filled with water for a few minutes. He had showed them the coin he found, and any apprehension anybody had had was effectively replaced with excitement and eagerness to see what else was in the hidden cave. And so here they all were looking around in awe at the cave where the river flowed through.

“We’re definitely inside the rocky cliffs right beside the red sea.” Niall said as he looked around. “I’m pretty sure that if we follow the path of the river, it would flow right through into the red sea.”

“I wish we had more light though,” Harry said looking at the torchlight with Louis and a lighter that Zayn was holding from the one knapsack that they had brought with them on account of it being the only waterproof bag that they had.

“Hold up.” Zayn said as he looked up whilst holding up the lighter. “Is that what I think it is?” He asked as everybody crowded around him to take a look. Louis aimed the torchlight at where Zayn had indicated and sure enough, there was a row of what seemed to be torches along the length of the rocky walls.

“Here” Louis said as he got on his hands and knees and Harry took his cue and immediately climbed on him to reach for one of the torches.

“It won’t budge.” Harry said trying to dislodge the thing from the rocky wall. “I can’t grab it. It’s too embedded in the walls.”

“Well then, here” Zayn said as he handed Harry the lighter. “See whether you can just light it up.”

Getting on his tiptoes Harry reached up and flicked the lighter open to light up the torch. He almost toppled over backwards as the torch was immediately set alight.

They watched in awe as the flames engulfed the end of the torch but it didn’t stop there as the flames made its way through a little trail alongside the rocky walls to the next torch and immediately lighting that as well and the next, until the entire cave was lit bright as each torch was set alight in a domino effect.

“Whoa.”  Niall said as he looked at his surroundings echoed by similar awestruck sentiment of the others. The cave was absolutely stunning. The walls were filled with beautiful drawings and etchings from top to bottom and they knew, they just knew that this was the place they had been looking for. They could see several more coins scattered on the cave floor and looked excitedly at each other as they continued down the path of the small river flowing within the cave until they reached an opening deeper into the cave. Squeezing through the narrow opening one by one, nothing could have prepared them to what they were about to discover.

The opening led to a bigger cave where the river formed into a small underground lake with a small whirlpool in the middle. With the light of the torches that also surrounded the bigger area of the cave, the scene was spectacular, but what completely took their breath away was the piles and piles of gold and jewels that were scattered along the length of the entire cave. It truly was the riches of an entire kingdom, as chests and chest of gold and jewels were piled on top of the other and it took a while for anyone to even react as they stared at it in disbelieve.

“Holy shit” Liam said as he reached over to Harry to touch his shoulder as Harry dragged his gaze away to look at Liam with wide set eyes. “I can’t believe it. We actually found it!” Harry said as he broke into a laugh immediately engulfing Liam in a hug and instantly, they felt the weight of three other bodies as the others piled on topped of them whooping in celebration.

“I can’t believe that this treasure has been here all along and nobody knew about it.” Zayn said looking around him in amazement as their laughter died down and they extricated themselves from each other.

“Well bloody believe it mate. Unless we’re all dreaming the same dream, this right here is the real deal!!” Louis said as he picked up a handful of coins and threw them in the air. “Just look at this. This is incredible.”

“Damn.” Niall said as he opened a nearby chest that was also filled with gold and jewels. “This treasure right here could fund an entire country for years I reckon. It’s no wonder that everyone wants to get their hands on it.”

“Hey Guys.” Harry said as he tried to get everyone’s attention. “Look!” he said pointing to an archway, which corridor led to another opening in the cave. “Is that what I think it is?” He asked as he peered through the archway. At the end of the long corridor was a podium like stone structure with a cage placed on top of it. And inside the cage was what looked like a solid gold challis.

“No way.” Louis said as he moved closer to the archway. “Is that the miracle challis, that Sidi Orras is looking for? Well I’ll be damn.” He said as he made his way to the archway. “Let’s go check it out!”

“No wait Louis!!” Harry yelled as he quickly ran to grab Louis’ arm and jerked him back just before he entered the long corridor.

“Huh? What?” Louis asked startled.

 “Shit. I didn’t even think about it.” Liam said as he looked at Harry and caught on to what he was thinking.

“It does seem a little too easy.” He said peering through the archway.

“What the heck are you guys talking about?” Louis asked looking at Liam and Harry like they had lost their marbles.

Instead of answering, Liam picked up a stone and threw it through the corridor. Immediately there was a swift swoosh sound and they watched in horror as three arrows embedded itself at the side of the corridor appearing to have come out of nowhere.

“What the” Louis managed to say as he looked at the arrows with his mouth wide opened. “What even was that!!!  Is that some kind of a booby trap or something??? I mean that could have totally killed me. What the hell!”

“Sonofabitch” Zayn said as he walked closer to the entrance of the corridor to have a closer look at the arrows.

“I’m pretty sure the entire corridor is littered with traps like that.” Harry said joining him. “They must use some sensor or something. The ancient Egyptians were way ahead of their time with their engineering and architectural skills. We’re lucky that we got to the rest of the treasure without encountering any of the traps. The challis must be pretty special.”

“Oh man.” Louis said sighing. “Does that mean, we won’t get to check it out! I really wanted to know whether there’s any truth to the whole miracle cure thing. Damn it!

“Yeah. Probably not worth it getting ourselves killed just to find that out. Let’s leave them to the authorities to get out safely.” Harry said.

“Well it’s not like there’s not enough treasure on this side of the corridor.” Niall said chiming in as he explored the rest of the treasure trove. Some of these are pretty sick!! Louis look!” He said as he motioned Louis over. “Look at this dagger!” he said as he handed over a beautiful dagger with an intricately designed skull shaped handle. “Oh wow.” Louis said looking at the dagger in awe. “You guys think we would be able to keep any of the treasure?” he asked.

The rest of the boys had dispersed and was exploring the rest of the cave looking in awe at all the treasure around them.

“I don’t know” Liam said as he bent down to look at a solid gold statuette of an eagle. “I have no idea how it works. At the very least surely they would give us a finding fee right?”

“Wrong.” A voice answered him that made his head snap up and what he saw made his blood run cold.  There at the entrance of the cave where they had come in from, was Bruno, who had one armed wrapped around Harry’s neck and another holding a gun to his temple.

“He’s right.” Came another familiar voice as Damian and two other goons appeared from behind Bruno. They were all armed.

“There definitely won’t be a finding fee.” Damian said as they made their way closer.  “There won’t be any fee at all! he added with a sinister laugh. “In fact, I can’t promise you that you’ll be leaving this cave alive!”

“Come here and get on your knees.” Damian said motioning with his gun as the rest of his goons made their way to grab Liam, Louis, Niall and Zayn and pushed them roughly on their knees in front of Damian.

Niall gave a pained yell as he was kicked at the back of his knees making him fall hard on his kneecaps.

“Hey watch it you sonofabitch!” Louis said angrily as he struggled against the hands that held him, to reach over to help Niall. That however got him a hard backhand with the side of the gun as he toppled over to the side seeing stars explode in his vision.

“I don’t know how your brother and his friends found you but I have to give it to you and Zayn here. You’ve got balls. NOBODY escapes from our camp! But you managed to do that **AND** caused quite a fair bit amount of damage.” Damian said.

“And I’m gonna have fun making you ALL pay for that.” Bruno added as he shoved Harry to his knees and grabbing his hair back whilst pressing his gun harder to Harry’s cheeks.

“NOO!! Liam said as he looked on in horror. He had stared death in the face when Bruno was about to kill him a couple days earlier but he had no idea the obliterating fear that he would face at seeing the gun pointed at his brothers head. “Please don’t” he said not caring that he was openly weeping.

“Just take what you want and please just leave.” He said pleadingly.

Damian just sniggered and ordered his goons to tie them up.

“Well this definitely is the find of the century.” He said looking around him. “I have to say you had us stumped for a while there when we found out the numbers weren’t exactly coordinates.  We wasted a hell of a lot of precious time trying to figure it out. But we finally did. We were just about to get someone to convert it to real coordinates when we saw the huge beacon in the sky that you guys so kindly put up for us. Thank you for that by the way.”

Zayn gritted his teeth as one of the goons roughly grabbed both his arms and tied them tightly with a piece of rope behind him. He looked around him desperately looking for something to help them escape. He did not go through all that trouble of breaking him and Liam out of the camp just to get caught again. Damn it.  He was going to see his mother and there was no way he was going to let anyone get in his way again. They took away 6 months of his life. They were not taking anything else from him or from anyone else. He suddenly remembered the knife he kept in the waistband of his trousers. It was still there! They hadn’t taken it away. In fact they didn’t even check any of them for weapons! He stole a glance at Louis and immediately knew that he still had the dagger that they were just looking at somewhere on him.  He gave Louis a subtle nod silently letting him know with his eyes that he had the means to escape the binds if he needed to and that he just had to wait for the right time. He didn’t know if Louis understood exactly what he wanted to make known without words but Louis gave a determined nod in return.

 “First things first though.” Damian said as moved closer to Liam. “Where’s the challis?” he asked as he grabbed Liam’s jaw and forced him to look up.

“It’s right there down that corridor.” Liam said motioning with his head. “Please just take it. Take whatever you want and let us go.” Liam said as he looked worriedly at Harry who was wincing in pain as Bruno held him tightly by the hair.

“Well I’ll be damn.” Damian said as he peered through the small corridor. “It really does exist. It’s not just a myth!” 

 “Well what are you waiting for? Go get it!” he said motioning to one of his goons.

Liam’s head snapped up as he suddenly remembered the traps in the corridor and saw the same realisation dawn in the other boys faces as the goon made his way to the corridor. Before anyone could say or do anything, the guy was already entering the corridor and sure enough, the minute he took his first step, a slew of arrows came whizzing past firmly embedding itself in the henchmen. They watched in horror as he fell on the floor lifeless with arrows sticking out of him, with one striking him straight in the temple.

Damian, who was about to follow his henchmen into the corridor stumbled backwards as the guy fell lifelessly at his feet. “You sons of bitches!!” He yelled as he turned around fuming mad. “You bloody knew!!” He said grabbing Liam by the collar. Liam squeezed his eyes tight as he felt the cold steel of the gun being pressed to his temple. “You think you’re so smart? Huh?” he said practically shaking in anger.

“Let’s just kill them Damian!” Bruno yelled furious. “They’re more trouble than they’re worth!” he said readjusting his hold on Harry’s hair and yanking his head back harder as he placed his gun under Harry’s chin.

“Noo!” Liam yelled as he saw Harry gasp in pain.

“You know what? I think that’s exactly what we’ll do. Starting with your brother there.” Damian said as Liam shook his head vehemently as tears flowed down his face. “Please no. Don’t.”

“Tell me. What would you do for me to spare your brother’s live? Damian said menacingly. “What would you do?”

“Anything.” Liam whispered as his voice hitched. “Anything you want. Just please let him and the rest of them go.”

“Oh how very noble. And I know just the thing.” He said as he grabbed Liam by the shirt and pulled him up to his feet.

“Get me that Challis.”

“Noo.” Harry said as he stared in wide-eyed horror at Liam.

He watched as Damian cut the ropes binding Liam’s hands lose and led him to the entrance of the corridor.

“No. Liam don’t do it.” He yelled as he struggled desperately against Bruno’s hold on him.  Liam turned to look at him from the corridor where he stood and Harry’s heart sank to the bottom of the stomach as he saw the apologetic look Liam gave him. “Don’t you dare.” He said shaking his head as tears streamed down his face “Don’t you bloody dare!!”.

************************

Liam looked around him at Louis, Zayn and Niall who were on their knees and defenceless as a goon hovered over them with a gun, making sure they didn’t make any stupid moves. He swallowed as he looked over at Harry and the gun Bruno was holding firmly under his chin. He knew what he needed to do. He didn’t have a choice. If he didn’t they would kill each and every one of them starting with Harry and he couldn’t allow that to happen. He knew that it was more than likely that they would end up killing them anyway but he wasn’t going to be the one to expedite the process. Help was hopefully on its way soon and he just needed to make sure that everyone was kept alive for as long as possible. His heart broke at the look in Harry’s eyes as he saw what Liam was about to do. He only hoped that Harry would find it in his heart to forgive him. Taking a deep breath he mouthed a silent ‘I’m sorry’ to Harry and channelled all the energy and adrenaline he had to sprint down the little corridor.

*****************

He could hear the yells from Harry and the rest as he sped down the cave tunnel but he ignored it and focused on the challis at the end of the tunnel. It was only about 50 meters away now but he felt like everything was going in slow motion. He could hear the whizzing of arrows and other sharp objects as they embedded themselves in the tunnel walls just milliseconds after he sprinted past. His lungs were burning and his injured ribs were protesting against the exertion he was forcing his body to go through but he knew he could not afford to slow down. He hissed as he felt an arrow graze his ear. Distracted by the pain, he missed a raised stone on the pathway and toppled forward just as a slab of wood with deadly spikes swung itself from one side of the corridor to the other. Due to the speed he was going, the momentum caused him to slide the rest of the way, right to the very end of the corridor and skidding to a stop at the base of the podium like stone structure where the challis was.

Breathing heavily he laid there for a while trying to get his bearings. He could hear Harry desperately yelling asking if he was okay but he was too winded to yell back.

***

Harry’s heart was pounding in his chest as he watched Liam stumble the few meters just as a slab of wooden spikes swung right above where his head would have been. He struggled against Bruno’s arms as he tried to get a closer look and yelled out in panic as he saw Liam slide to the end of the corridor and lay unmoving at the base of the challis. He finally let out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding when he saw Liam finally move to raise his head and he could not stop the tears of relief that fell down his face.

Liam raised his head and turned to look back at the destruction in the corridor behind him. Both sides of the corridor walls were littered with arrows and spikes embedded within it with some falling and scattering the ground. It was a close call and he could not be more grateful for the years of track training he had at school.

“Well what are you waiting for? Get the bloody challis!” he heard Damian yell from the other side of the corridor.

Groaning against his protesting muscles, he slowly got up on his feet. The little cage where the challis was placed was right in front of him and he looked at it in awe. It was absolutely beautiful. He honestly had no idea what kind of magical powers the challis had or whether it was even magical at all but it was crazy to think that all that they had gone through and all the effort that was put in to search for the treasure was because of this golden challis right in front of him. His hands were still shaking from the adrenalin of running through the corridor of traps and he took a deep breath to calm himself as he slowly reached for the metal door of the cage. To his relief, he found that the door wasn’t locked and it opened easily. He heard Damian yell at him to hurry up in the background but nevertheless took his time to put his hands through the cage and grab a good hold of the challis. It was heavier than he expected but then again it was solid gold. He managed to slowly lift it out of the cage and was about to turn to head back to the other side of the corridor when he heard a loud click followed by a whirring sound.

Startled, he looked around him to see whether he had set off a trap of some sort but could not see any that could possibly be one. Suddenly, he felt trembling beneath his feet followed by a smattering of rocks falling from the cave ceiling. What the hell was that? He thought in alarm. The trembling was getting stronger and more and more rocks were falling from above them. It was like the beginning of a bloody earthquake! He grabbed a hold of the podium with one hand to secure his footing as the vibration increased. He must have triggered some trap when he took the challis. Probably some sort of mechanism that had a sensor to monitor the weight of the challis being taken off the base of the cage or something. Damn it! He should have been more careful! And now there was some self-destruct mechanism is place causing the entire cave to seemingly fall in on itself!

Grabbing the challis tightly, he sprinted back through the corridor where Harry and the rest were. Instead of traps though, he now had to contend with falling rocks and debris and almost missed getting hit in the shoulder by a falling batch of rocks as he made his way through the tunnel.

******************

“Damian, we have to go! We have to go NOW or we’ll all be buried alive.” Bruno said as he clutched tightly to Harry who was practically hyperventilating as he watched Liam make his way back through the tunnel amidst the falling debris. Even where they were standing, rocks were falling around them and he knew that they didn’t have much time to get out safely.

He struggled against Bruno’s grip as Bruno dragged him to the entrance of the cave which led back to the corridor where the mouth of the underground river was. There was no way he was going to leave without Liam and the rest of the guys.  Finding a moment where Bruno was distracted by the rocks falling around them, he opened his mouth wide and bit down on Bruno’s arm that was still around his neck. Taking advantage of Bruno’s surprise as he cried out in pain, he lifted his elbow and brought it down hard into Bruno’s solar plexus. He then quickly turned to the kick the gun that Bruno has holding away sending it skittering on the cave floor.

The other henchman that was guarding Zayn, Louis and Niall quickly turned his attention to the commotion. Upon seeing his comrade in trouble, he raised his gun and aimed it at Harry. Zayn who had silently been sawing the ropes of his bound hands with the knife he had retrieved from his waistband quickly snapped the remainder of the frayed bindings and immediately jumped to topple over the goon.

Harry was full on fighting now as Bruno managed to recover quickly to hit a solid hook to Harry’s jaw causing him to stumble as his head exploded in pain. He braced himself against the cave wall but he knew he didn’t have a lot of time to recover as he could see Bruno reaching over to grab his gun which had fallen.  He was about to push himself from the wall to jump Bruno before he reached the gun, when a large rock suddenly fell right in front of him to hit Bruno squarely in the head. He quickly stumbled back as he looked at the fallen henchmen in horror.

Zayn on the other hand, had his hands busy tackling the other henchmen. He had managed to jump him by surprise and knock his gun over. The goon however had quickly turned on him and brandished a knife as he moved slowly towards Zayn. Just as he was about to attack however, Louis, who also managed to get free from his bindings, thanks to the dagger that he still had on him, swung the golden eagle statue that was next to him to hit the henchmen right smack in the head. Seeing the guy fall to the ground unmoving, Zayn and Louis turned to Niall to slice the ropes from his bound hands.

All three of them stopped dead in their tracks however when they turned to see the scene before them. Damian had managed to grab Harry again when he stumbled back after witnessing Bruno being crushed by a rock right in front of him, and was yelling for Liam, to give him the challis. Rocks and debris were falling everywhere and they could see the desperation in Damian’s eyes to just get the challis and get out, as he waved his gun dangerously switching between aiming it between Harry and Liam.

Liam however stood firm and refused to hand over the challis unless Damian released Harry.

Damian was livid and all of them almost jumped out of their skin as he fired off a warning shot at Liam’s feet.

“Just give him the challis Liam!!” Harry yelled amidst the chaos.  Damian was desperate and dangerous and the entire cave was caving in on itself.  They were literally stuck between a rock and a hard place and no possible option guaranteed that they would get out of there alive, especially if they delayed any escape attempt any longer.

Realising this as well, Liam looked at the challis in his hands and swung it back as he readied to throw. “Here catch!!” he said as he threw the challis at Damian’s direction, but deliberately just outside his reach. Swearing, Damian pushed Harry aside as he jumped up to reach the flying challis.

Liam quickly ran over to grab Harry and pull him in his arms. “We need to get out of here now,” Harry said urgently as he and Liam avoided the falling rocks and debris.

“Not so fast.” Damian said with a maniacal grin as he walked backwards towards the cave entrance clutching the challis tightly with one hand and pointing his gun at Liam and Harry with the other.

“Please. You have what you want. Just let us go.” Liam said as he stepped in front of Harry protectively.

“You didn’t think I would just leave you without the satisfaction of seeing you die did you?? After ALL that you have put me through??” he said with as he cocked the gun he was holding.

Liam clutched tightly to Harry as he saw Damian’s finger moved to pull the trigger.

 

*******************************

Niall looked at the ground to see the gun that had fallen from the henchman that they had downed. It was a little bit out of his reach, made harder by his newly injured knee that he got courtesy of the fallen goon, but he knew he had to do something. He could sense Zayn and Louis about to sprint in Damian’s direction to take him down, but Damian was too far and they would never make it in time before he pulled the trigger.

Locking his sight on the gun, he quickly dived towards it making a clean turn on his shoulders before getting up on his uninjured knee with gun in hand and firing a shot all in one swift motion.

The shot hit the gun Damian was holding causing it to fly away to hit the cave wall beside him. Damian looked up in shock to see the source of the shot. Swearing loudly, he quickly turned to run out of the cave entrance when suddenly a falling rock knocked the challis from his hands causing it to fall and roll all the way into the body of water that was in the middle of the cave.

Before anyone could do anything, there was a loud rumble followed by an avalanche of falling rocks right at the cave entrance. Damian, who had stumbled back further behind the entrance to avoid the falling rocks was now effectively blocked from getting back into the cave. They could hear his yells of anger from behind the pile of rocks but gave it no mind because they had a bigger problem at hand! Now that the entrance was blocked, they had NO WAY of getting out of there! They were well and truly trapped in the cave and it was crumbling down on itself!

“Oh God.” Liam said looking around him in panic.

“Maybe we can move it.” Louis said as he went to the pile of rocks and motioned for Zayn and Niall to help him.

“Wait! Guys!!” Harry said tugging at Liam’s shirt to get his attention. “The whirlpool!” he said as he pointed to the challis that had fallen into it and which was now making its way around the little underground lake as it was suctioned by the current into the whirlpool in the middle of it.

“The river that flows in this cave!! It has to end somewhere right?? There has to be an exit point where the water goes.”

“Harry’s right” Niall said chiming in.  “That would explain the whirlpool in the middle of it. Pretty sure it leads into the sea.”

‘Whoa wait.” Zayn said eyes wide.  “You want us to jump into the whirlpool to see whether it can take us out to the freaking sea?!!”

“Shit!” Louis said as he turned to the whirlpool putting both his hands on his head at the craziness of it all.  “this is bloody ridiculous!!”

“But what choice do we have.” Niall said as he looked around them. “This whole cave is coming down and its coming down fast.”

As if to prove his point, a bunch of rocks rained down on them and Harry yelled out in pain as one hit him in the shoulder. “Ok. Fine. Come on!!” Louis said shaking himself off as he readied to jump into the whirlpool.

“Liam” Zayn said looking at him in panic. “You know I can’t.” He said shaking his head. “I can’t swim.”

“Do you trust me?” Liam said as he put his arm on Zayn’s shoulder and looked at him directly in the eye. “I’m not leaving you behind Zayn.” He said determinedly as Zayn slowly nodded his head. “Trust me ok. I’ve got your back.” He said as he grabbed Zayn’s hand.

“Harry are you okay to swim with that shoulder?” He asked turning to his brother. “I’ll manage.” Harry said brushing aside Liam’s concern.

“I’ll make sure he and Niall gets through safely” Louis said giving Liam’s shoulder a tight squeeze.

“Let’s just go!” he said as the others nodded in agreement and they all instinctively took a deep breath right as they jumped into the whirlpool,

****************

As soon as they jumped in they were immediately swept into the strong current of the whirlpool. They were getting closer to the middle of it where they could see the challis being suctioned down to immediately disappear in the depths of the water. Zayn was holding on tightly to Liam but as the pull down of the current became stronger, causing them to submerge, he completely lost sense of everything as he felt himself going round and round being a puppet to the strong current. He didn’t know how long they were underwater for but he felt like his lungs were about to burst.  All of a sudden the water gave way to empty air and he felt himself free falling for a few seconds before falling hard into another body of water.  He didn’t have time to brace himself and he struggled against his burning lungs and ended up swallowing water. He could feel the darkness threatening to consume him, and he knew that if he passed out, there was no coming back from that. All of sudden he felt a strong grip on the back of his shirt lifting him through the water until they finally broke the surface.  Words could not explain the relief he felt when the cool air hit his face and he greedily gasp for breath trying to take in as much oxygen a he could.

“I’ve got you” he heard as he turned to see Liam beside him. 

‘Where’s everyone else” Zayn asked between coughs as he looked around him.

“They’re swimming up ahead to the nearby shore. Come on, we got to get out of here.”  He said as they looked back to see the cliff practically crumbling in on itself with dangerous rocks falling into the water all around it.

 

Harry, Niall and Louis had reached the shore safely and was anxiously looking back at Zayn and Liam who were behind them. Harry immediately ran back into the water to help them as they came closer.

Finally able to get on his feet, Liam felt himself being engulfed by his brother in a tight hug. He pulled in Zayn that was beside him to join in the hug and he felt two other bodies run up to join them as they stood there hugging and crying.

‘We made it” Liam said shaking his head in amazement. “I can’t believe we all made it.” He said sniffing and wiping his eyes.  They extricated themselves from the hug and looked at what was left of the cliff. The whirlpool had pulled them underwater to a hole in the cliff where they fell amidst the waterfall directly into the sea below it. It was none too soon though because the cliff was practically non existent now.

“Is everyone okay?” Liam asked as he looked around him. “How’s your shoulder?” He asked turning to Harry.

“It’s fine.” Harry said moving his arms and was surprised when he didn’t feel any pain at all.

“Your knee okay Niall?” He asked as they all looked at Niall.

“You know what. Must be the adrenaline because it honestly doesn’t hurt at all.”

“Thank God.” Louis said as they all walked back to the shore after assessing each other’s injury. “We really got lucky there. That was such a close call. “

“I honestly can’t believe that just happened.” Harry said as he sat down in the dry sand as the rest of them followed suit.

Sitting back and looking at the ruined cliffs, they all counted their blessings that they had gotten out of there alive. Niall had even managed to grab his backpack with him when they made their escape so they still had the GPS with them. Now it was just a matter of waiting for help to arrive and this time, they were staying put!

“Niall. That move that you made where you dived and rolled whilst grabbing the gun and landing to take a shot at Damian!! That was sick man!” Zayn said as he put his arms around Niall’s neck bringing him in with a one arm hug. “You didn’t even bloody aim but you hit it right where his gun was! That was some James Bond shit right there!.”

 “I guess the years and years of arcade shooting finally paid off” Niall said laughing as Louis leaned over to ruffle his hair.

“Well you saved our lives Niall.” Harry said smiling down at the blond. “Thank you for that.”

‘Speaking of.”  Zayn said as he turned to Liam. “You saved my life back there.. You really did have my back. Thank you.” Zayn said earnestly as he pulled Liam into another hug.

“Just returning the favour.” Liam said smiling as they both pulled away from the hug.

Zayn suddenly stilled as he stared intensely as Liam.

“What the?” he said as and grabbed Liam by the chin.

“What?” Liam asked startled as the others also stopped in their tracks to look back at them.

“Your face!” Zayn said ignoring Liam’s alarmed expression as he turned Liam’s face to the right and then to the left.

“What about it” Liam asked trying to speak despite Zayn’s thumb and forefinger pinching each side of his cheeks

“It’s completely healed!!” he said not quite believing what he was looking at.

“Huh?” Liam asked confused.

“You had a swollen eye and cuts and bruises all over! But now they’re gone!! They’re all gone”

Louis and the rest immediately came closer to get a better look.

“Shit you’re right” Louis said as he turned to Zayn giving him an incredulous look.

“Whoa.” Zayn said as he did a double take as he looked at Louis’ face. “Didn’t **you** have a cut to the temple after being clocked by the guy with the gun in the cave? I saw that happening with my one eyes.”

Louis’ hand immediately went up to his face to feel for the cut. It wasn’t there! “Holy crap” he said turning to the rest of the guys.

“Um guys.” Niall said interrupting as everybody looked at each other in confusion. “Actually come to think about it, my knee is feeling a little too okay for it to just be the adrenaline.”

“My shoulder too.” Harry said piping in. “I don’t feel any pain at all!”

Liam lifted his shirt to feel his ribs and found that not only was there no pain, but the heavy bruises on it was completely gone too. So was the cut near his collar bone where  Bruno had dragged a knife through his skin.

Looking up abruptly he grabbed Zayn by the shoulder and turned him around. Lifting Zayn’s shirt up, he couldn’t help but give a little gasp as he saw the smooth expanse of skin on Zayn’s back with not a single mark or scar.

“What the hell!”

“They’re all healed aren’t they!” Zayn said as he turned back to face Liam.

“All our injuries. They’re all healed!”

“But how?” Niall asked in confusion. “That’s impossible! It can’t have disappeared just like that. That’s like some crazy magic or something!” He said incredulous.

“Oh my God!” Harry said getting up to his feet.  “Guys!” he said his mind racing trying to get his thoughts in order.

“It’s not just some crazy magic. It’s a bloody miracle!!” he exclaimed as the rest looked up at him in confusion.

“You know. Like a MIRACLE cure!!!!”

“Whoa what???” Louis said trying to understand what Harry was trying to say.  “You mean like what drinking from the Challis was supposed to be?”

“But we didn’t drink from the Challis Harry.” Niall said thinking hard.

“That’s right. We didn’t.” Liam said turning to Niall as he realised what Harry was getting at. “But it fell into the whirlpool! The very whirlpool that we jumped into!”

 “Holy shit” Louis said shaking his head. Harry and Liam were right. They were practically submerged in the very water that the Challis was in.

“I guess it really wasn’t just a myth. Its real! The whole miracle cure thing is real! No wonder Sidi Orras wanted to get his hands on it so desperately. Can you imagine what that challis would be worth?”

“Yeah. Too bad it’s somewhere at the bottom of the sea.” Niall said as he looked out into the horizon.

“And all that treasure as well!” Louis said looking back at the cliff.  “It’s all gone. Buried within the fallen cliffs. All the gold and riches of an entire kingdom! It’s like everything anyone could ever want.” he said with both hands at the back of his head as he looked at the fallen cliff and thinking about all the treasure that was lost in it.

Feeling a hand on his shoulders he turned to look at Liam who was smiling down at him. “It’s okay Louis. We may not have the treasure but everything we need is right here.” He said pulling Louis into a one armed hug.

“You are such a sap!” Louis said pushing him away as he doubled over in laughter as Liam and the rest of them joined him. Jokes and laughter aside though, they knew deep down the truth in the words.

Suddenly they heard a loud whirring sound and turned back to see a large helicopter appearing from behind them. Niall immediately jumped on his feet as he saw his Dad waving from the front seat.

“That’s my Dad!!” He yelled as he waved wildly back. Immediately getting up on their feet they all joined him as they whooped for joy that help had finally arrived. They were going back home!!!!

Harry turned to give Liam a hug.  “We’re safe.” he said leaning his forehead against Liam feeling absolute relieve that the nightmare was over.

“I’m sorry I had to put you through all that. But thank you for having my back”. Liam said earnestly. “Always.” Harry said smiling.

"Hey. You don't think my kidney is healed do you?" Liam asked suddenly as he just remembered his damaged kidney.

"Whoa." Harry exclaimed as he also came to the realisation. They had been focused on all the outward injuries that they had that he didn't even think about an internal one. "You know, I'm willing to bet a whole sack of gold coins that it actually is.How awesome would that be though." he said wide eyed as he looked excitedly at Liam. "Yeah. I guess we'll find out soon. I'll make sure to check it out when we get back." Liam said  as they both turned to look at the rest of the boys who were still whooping and hollering and hugging each other as they watched the rescue helicopter approach nearer.

"We couldn't have done it without them you know." Harry said laughing at their antics.

"I know" Liam said nodding in agreement. “We truly got lucky."

"Can we keep them please?” Harry said putting on his best puppy dog eyes.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way” Liam said laughing throwing an arm around Harry's shoulders and called Louis, Niall and Zayn over for a group hug as they waited for the helicopter to land and to take them home.


End file.
